Discipline follows; for Christ had been offered up as the Paschal Lamb, and they were to keep the feast without leaven, keeping themselves from the old leaven; in order that they might be in fact, what they were before God an unleavened lump
God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood of Christ is ever before the eye of God. He never fogets it. If God does not ever forget the blood of Christ shed once for ever, He does not wish us to forget it. The Lord Jesus in His boundless grace wishes us to think of Him, to remember Him. Precious manifestation of love for us, that the Saviour should delight in our remembrance of Him, and that He has left us a touching memorial of Himself and His love. Jesus wishes us to think of Him, because He loves us! The Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See (Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24). In the supper we shew forth His death till He comes.
Lastly, the Lord gives to His disciples of the fruit of the vine to drink; and it is called this after that the Lord had said in verse 24, ‘This is my blood of the new covenant.’ It is quite clear that when he says, ‘I will drink no more of it’ He speaks of wine in its natural sense.
God’s righteousness as Judge is connected with blood, as in Romans 3 and also in the Passover. No man could ever plead a part in the second dealing of righteousness save Christ Himself, for all are sinners; Christ, even as a Man down here, could be accepted as perfectly agreeable to God. But then Christianity, and even Judaism in its figures, goes a great deal further — for grace reigns through righteousness, and sinners were to be justified or accounted righteous.
The blood on the lintel and doorposts having met the sin, now full deliverance is wrought by the death and resurrection of Christ. Satan’s power, judgment which shut them in, were gone and secured Israel for ever from them. It was finished, done, and they were delivered and with God.
There were three great feasts when all Israel had to go up to Jerusalem, the Passover, Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, and the Tabernacles. The true Passover has been sacrificed, but the great gathering of the Feast of Tabernacles has yet to come; people will then own Christ to be their Passover, who will not have done so hitherto. That however, is still future.
The Passover was first held when Israel was coming out of Egypt, and for seven days they were to eat unleavened bread.
In the Passover, man is a judged and condemned race. But the pride of man is such that he refuses this, and seeks to restore himself as he is. People claim that Christ come into the condition of the children of Adam, as if it were to raise up men as men. This is all false. It is a totally new place altogether into which Christ has entered. It is all over with the world, and God has proved His righteousness in setting Christ at His own right hand.
The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last Passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.
When I see the Blood
The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects
The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last Passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.
With what simplicity the Lord announces that which was to happen! He already arrived at Bethany, six days before the Passover (John 12:1): there He abode, with the exception of the last supper, until He was taken captive in the garden of Gethsemane, although He visited Jerusalem, and partook of His last meal there.
He then points out that it is the slain Saviour slain who is to be remembered. His pathway as the living Messiah was over. It was no longer the remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new order of things. He draws the disciples’ attention to the blood of the new covenant, saying that it was ‘shed for many.’ – i.e. Jew and Gentile. It was shed for the remission of sins.
The scribes and Pharisees were already consulting how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. They feared the influence of the people, who admired the works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. Therefore they wished to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when the multitude flocked to Jerusalem: but God had other purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb, blessed Lord! and He offers Himself as the victim of propitiation.
But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover that took place during the life of Jesus, the one in which He was Himself to be the Lamb. The memorial to faith was that of Himself and of His work. He therefore sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep the feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to converse with them, and to testify His love for them as their companion, for the last time. But it is to tell them (for He must suffer everything) that one of them should betray Him.
It was Himself, His sacrifice, not a temporal deliverance, that they were to remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him dying on the cross. Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He lays the foundation of the new covenant in His blood (in a figure), giving it to them as participation in His death. When they had all drunk of it, He announces to them that it is the seal of the new covenant a thing well known to the Jews, according to Jeremiah; adding that it was shed for many. Death was to come in for the establishment of the new covenant, and for the ransom of many. Death was necessary, and the bonds of earthly association between Jesus and His disciples were dissolved
The chief priests, fearing the people, seek how they may kill Him. The day of Passover comes, and the Lord shows the character of the gospel. Thus He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first. Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium. Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.
The new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk in figure. The old was done away. Blood was required to establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself was not established; but everything was done on God’s part. The blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of judgment like the first; it was shed for those who received Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself should be established with Israel in grace.
They were all at the table together, and the Lord Jesus, full of love, looked upon His disciples. He felt deeply the fact that one of them who had lived in His holy presence should betray Him. He proved their hearts – ‘Lord, is it I?’ (Matthew 26:22) – to bring to light that which was within.
Now the Lord institutes the supper, a precious sign and memorial of His love and of His death. Up to that time, the Passover had been the commemoration of the deliverance of the people out of the captivity in Egypt, when the blood of the Lamb was put upon the doors of the houses where the Israelites were. Now the blood of a more excellent Lamb has been sprinkled upon the mercy-seat in heaven, before the eye of God; when Christ, the Lamb of God, accomplished everything for the glory of God and for the salvation of all believers. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. The work has been done: in the sacrifice of the cross Jesus drank the cup of malediction and cannot drink it again; He perfectly glorified God about sin. He bore the sins of many, and can never bear them again; He cannot offer Himself again, He is for ever seated at the right hand of God; Hebrews 9: 24-26. He would have had to suffer often, if His one offering upon the cross had not taken away for ever all the sins of all believers. The Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24).
In Luke’s account of the Passover (ch. 22), we have the sign of the passing away of the old system, and the bringing in of the new. As a token of affection , He eats with His disciples for the last time. He does not take the Passover cup at all and will not do so until the Kingdom of God comes. They were to divide this token of fellowship and communion in joy among themselves. Then He institutes the new thing in His body broken, the remembrance of a new and better deliverance, and the Cross the new covenant in His blood.
The Lord distinguishes in Luke 22 between the Paschal Lamb and the wine, and both from the institution of the memorial of His deliverance of His people by death. He desired to eat the Passover, but He did not partake of the wine. In partaking of the Passover, it was the last and deep testimony of God’s faithful love to Israel as His people delivered from Egypt, and the Saviour’s entering, in the fullest individual way, into all the feelings of a ransomed Jew before God, the feelings and interests of the people as such. He felt for and with Israel, and that as one of themselves, too, until by His rejection they stood on other ground, and divine favour passed into another scene by the resurrection, and He became the Substitute, Himself the true Paschal Lamb. They rejecting their own mercies, their history, as so received, ended in His death. . . .
The time was not yet come for the Lord to enjoy the position as Head of the earthly people. He humbly, and full of grace, ate the Passover with them before He suffered, and passed from recognising the Jewish goodness of the Lord, into the suffering which became Him who should glorify God. He could not take the joy of the kingdom. They were to take what would have been the sign of it now as the symbol and memorial of His death — that was the basis of all true joy, the need which the state of things, of men, of God’s people occasioned — then suffer with Him, but afterwards they would find again their place with Messiah as Head of God’s people, the twelve tribes of Israel.
The connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.
The Passover by Subject – The Firstborn Shall be Mine
The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects
We have the unleavened bread, and the first-born consecrated, as the consequence and result of deliverance from Egypt, i.e., separation (consecration) to God in the double sense of purity, unfeigned hearts, and complete devotedness. These are the fruit of having to say to God in the way of divine power in deliverance.
Note too, the connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.
In the Passover, the unleavened bread, type of holiness and the absence of sin, is the bread of affliction (the spirit of repentance); and they were to turn to Him in the morning and go to their tents, though the feast lasted seven days.
The Passover by Subject
The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects
It was clearly established, in commemoration of God’s sparing the people when judging Egypt and Pharaoh at the time of their deliverance from the bondage they were in. In the Passover, the unleavened bread, type of holiness and the absence of sin, is the bread of affliction (the spirit of repentance); and they were to turn to Him in the morning and go to their tents, though the feast lasted seven days. But the great idea of security from God’s judgment was there in the blood of the Paschal Lamb. We now have, of course, only a memorial of it.
We have the unleavened bread, and the first-born consecrated, as the consequence and result of deliverance from Egypt, i.e., separation (consecration) to God in the double sense of purity, unfeigned hearts, and complete devotedness. These are the fruit of having to say to God in the way of divine power in deliverance.
Note too, the connection of unleavened bread and consecration of first-born on common ground here; both as a memorial in the land — the double character of the moral result looked for (produced by grace) in those delivered.
Another thing connected with the Passover is in Deuteronomy 16:7: “And thou shalt cook and eat it at the place which Jehovah thy God will choose; and in the morning shalt thou turn and go unto thy tents“. No communion, no joy, no fellowship — not a bit. Unleavened bread is the bread of affliction. They were saved, but that is all: they were still a people in bondage and slavery. Now God was going by as Judge; but because the Passover-blood the blood was on the doorposts, God would pass over them. How can I escape judgment, for God must have holiness, and I have none? Well, there is the blood. God is passing over – here we can say He is cut out of those dwellings (as a Judge) As He does not come near me, I have to eat the unleavened bread – the bread of affliction.
The Passover, the memorial of redemption of the people of God, as an assembly redeemed by Him, was obligatory during the journey through the wilderness. But according the record, it was celebrated only once. Those born in the wilderness were not circumcised till they came to Gilgal across the Jordan, so not in a condition to keep it. None born there were circumcised. God makes a provision, in grace and forbearance, for those who were not able to keep it.
However faithful Josiah had been, this had not changed the heart of the people – ‘The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? …, yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord’ (Jeremiah 3: 6, 10). Josiah’s faith was in action, and blessing depended on the conduct of the king. Despite this, the undercurrent was always tending to the ruin and rejection of the people.
For this special Passover, everything is set in order according to the ordinances of Moses and David, in a remarkable manner. It appears that even the ark had been removed from its place (2 Chronicles 35:3); but now, the ark being restored to its rest, the Levites occupy themselves diligently with their service, and even make ready for the priests, that they might keep the feast. They were all in their places according to the blessing of Israel in the rest they enjoyed under Solomon. Those who taught all Israel no longer bore the ark, but they ministered to God and to His people. The singers were there also, according to their order, so that there had not been such a Passover since the days of Samuel. It was like the last glimmering of the lamp which God had lighted among His people in the house of David. It was soon extinguished in the darkness of the nation which did not know God, and those who had been His people came under the judgment expressed by the word Lo-ammi (Not-my-people). God was yet to show His infinite grace.
The Passover has an unquestionably historical character. It was ‘a night much to be observed,’ (Ex 12:42) when, protected by the blood from judgment, they ate their unleavened bread in haste, preparing to depart out of Egypt. There is no evidence that they kept it after Sinai (Numbers 9) till they were in Canaan. Those born in the wilderness were not fitted to do so, being uncircumcised until across Jordan; when, under Joshua they were, they did so in Gilgal . Hezekiah kept it, and Josiah kept it, as it had not been kept for long years. What neglect!
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. So at last God executes His judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of the people; in one,
1. God appears as Judge
2. God manifests Himself as Deliverer, satisfied through the redeeming blood.
The Passover by Subject – The Original Passover – God’s Commandments
The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects
Despite the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. So at last God executes His judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of the people; in one,
1. God appears as Judge
2. God manifests Himself as Deliverer, satisfied through the redeeming blood.
God says, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over’ (v. 13). It is not said, ‘When you see it’, but ‘When I see it”. The soul of an awakened person rests, not on its own righteousness, or even his value of the blood, but on God’s valuation it. Peace is founded on God’s valuation. Our faith is in that.
There is further a difference between the passover and the great day of atonement. Here the blood met the eye of God passing through the land in judgment. On the great day of atonement it purified His habitation from our defilements, and, we can say, opened up the way to God’s throne and presence; gave us boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way. In the passover was added, as it had the character of first deliverance and forgiveness, the bitter herbs of judgment of sin in ourselves, and feeding on the slain Lamb, with loins girded and shoes on our feet, to leave the place of sin and judgment from which as the consequence of sin we had been fully sheltered.
We can take the sabbath, the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread as making a whole. Of the two latter, the unleavened bread was the feast, properly speaking; the Passover was the sacrifice on which the feast was grounded. As the apostle says, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with leaven,’ (1 Cor 5:7). What was indeed necessary for the sabbath, for the rest of God, was the sacrifice of Christ, and purity; and though all these feasts lead on to the rest of God, yet these two, the Passover and unleavened bread, are the basis of all, and of the rest itself for us. Christ’s sacrifice and the absence of all principle of sin, form the basis of the part we have in the rest of God. God is glorified in respect of sin; sin is put away for us, out of His sight, and out of our hearts. The perfect absence of leaven marked Christ’s path and nature down here, and is accomplished in us, so far as we realise Christ as our life, and recognise ourselves, though the flesh be still in us, as dead and risen with Him. To be without leaven was the perfection of the Person of Christ living upon earth, and becomes in principle of the walk upon earth of him who is partaker of His life.
The Passover recalled deliverance, deliverance from bondage in Egypt – for us this means deliverance from sin and Satan. It was eaten with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. That would signify repentance – ‘truth in the inward parts’ (Psalm 51:6). They were happy, having escaped bondage, through the power of God alone. They would have had the sense that it was a deliverance from the evil under which they had been, by their own fault and to their own ruin. If unrepentant (leaven in the house) the soul was cut off.
God gathered the people around His dwelling-place, and linked them with His name and with Himself. They worshipped Jehovah
The character of the Passover sacrifice — for it is called ze-vakh (sacrifice) — is pretty plain. There was nothing burnt to the Lord; the holy character of the lamb was preserved by anything remaining over to be burnt, no bone to be broken, nor any part carried out of the house; but there was no sweet savour to the Lord, it had not that character of sacrifice — no altar or place of approach, neither hik-riv (brought near) nor hik-tir (burnt in sweet savour). It was not in character nor effect, coming to God; it was keeping God, as a righteous Judge, out, so that they escaped.
— 8, 10. The fact that the Passover was to be eaten at night, and nothing left till the morning or burned seems think, to show that it was entirely apart from the whole course and scene in which nature and sense are conversant. It was an abstract matter between God and the soul, in the full undistracted claim and holiness of the divine nature. It had nothing to do with their miserable circumstances. It looked forward to where sin and the holy judgment of God met, when all was darkness for three hours with Christ on the cross. Then all was to be burnt — there was no mixing it with any thing common; Israel was sanctified by it, like the priests, so that they ate it, but it could not be mixed with other food.
Feasts of the Lord, mo-ed (a set time), feast of unleavened bread, Khag (a holy feast).
Note the Sabbath, Passover and unleavened bread were not dependent on their coming into the land.
The Passover is the basis of all, founded on which we have the feast of unleavened bread, the general result also in the sinless character of our association with God. verse 4, therefore begins afresh as the grand basis of all, unleavened bread being connected with it. The rest are special and actual dealings of God, and states and terms of relationship with Him; hence verse 9 starts with a new “the Lord spake”, and that begins the ways of the Lord in the resurrection of Christ, first fruits from the dead presented to Him. Sabbath — Passover — and Unleaven are the general great truth of our being assembled to God, verses 1 – 8.
Jehovah says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah. And the blood shall be unto you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12,-13). This was not the deliverance of Israel, like the passage of the Red Sea, but it was the ground of it; and of the two, the Passover was really the more solemn morally, though the Red Sea displayed God’s saving power more gloriously on behalf of His people and against their foes. But on the paschal night it was a question how God could pass over the guilty, even if His people; and the blood of the lamb sprinkled on Israel’s doorposts declared that God, though expressly judging, could not touch those screened thereby His truth and justice were stayed and satisfied before that blood. The destroyer was kept from entering.Not an Israelite perished within the blood-sprinkled lintels. It was a question of arresting God’s judgment here, of destroying Satan’s power in the type of the Red Sea; but the blood of Christ laid the foundation for the victory displayed in His resurrection.
The church of Rome says that the Lord’s supper (or rather the mass, as they call it) is the same sacrifice as that which was accomplished upon the cross. But when the Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See (Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24) He was not yet upon the cross. His blood was not yet shed
God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” The blood of Christ is ever before the eye of God. He never fogets it. If God does not ever forget the blood of Christ shed once for ever, He does not wish us to forget it. The Lord Jesus in His boundless grace wishes us to think of Him, to remember Him. Precious manifestation of love for us, that the Saviour should delight in our remembrance of Him, and that He has left us a touching memorial of Himself and His love. Jesus wishes us to think of Him, because He loves us! In the supper we shew forth His death till He comes.
It is important to remark that there is no sacrifice in the present time, and that the Lord is not personally present in the bread and wine. The church of Rome says that the Lord’s supper (or rather the mass, as they call it) is the same sacrifice as that which was accomplished upon the cross. But when the Lord said, ‘This is my body … do this in remembrance of me’ (See Matt 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24) He was not yet upon the cross. His blood was not yet shed, and when He broke the bread He did not hold Himself in His hands. There is no such thing now as a crucified Christ: He is seated at God’s right hand, and there is no shedding of blood now. It is a blessed fact that there is a sign, a commemoration of this, but that it should be so really and substantially is impossible – there is no such thing as a dead Christ now.
We shew forth in the supper His death and His blood shed for us: but a glorified Christ cannot be a sacrifice; cannot come down from heaven to die; and if the bread be changed into His body, and there be a soul in it, it must be another soul; this is absurd. They say that the Godhead is everywhere, and that the substance of the body is there; but the soul is individual: this lives, feels, loves, is a single individual soul. According to the Roman Catholic teaching, the soul of the Lord Jesus leaves heaven; but it cannot be the same soul, and if it is another, it is absurd. The Lord says in Luke 22:20, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood’: — that is, it represents the blood — for the cup itself is not the new covenant. Thus the bread presents to us in the most striking way the body of the Lord crucified upon the cross, and the wine His blood shed for us.
He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first. Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium. Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.
The Passover
The Passover is the first in our series of JND on Selected Subjects
Scripture quotations here are from the Darby Translation
The notes are a combination of those from the 1890 and 1961 editions of the Darby Bible. Where notes refer to another scripture, the notes from that scripture are used. In many notes in the 1890 edition there is a list of which manuscripts (MSS) use which terms. These MSS have not been listed.
The Synopsis has been slightly edited to simplify the English.
Matthew 26
Mark 14
Luke 22
1And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2Ye know that after two days the passover takes place, and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified.
17Now on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? 18And he said, Go into the city unto such a one, and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is near, I will keep the passover in thy house with my disciples. 19And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the passover.
. . .26And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken the bread and blesseda, broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. 27And having taken the cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. 28For this is my blood, that of the newb covenant, that shed for many for remission of sins. 29But I say to you, that I will not at allc drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father. 30And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.
1Now the passover and the feast of unleavened bread was after two days. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might seize him by subtlety and kill him. 2For they said, Not in the feast, lest perhapsa there be a tumult of the people.
. . . 12And the first day of unleavened bread, when they slew the passover, his disciples say to him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover? 13And he sends two of his disciples, and says to them, Go into the city, and a man shall meet you carrying a pitcherb of water; follow him. 14And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house, The Teacher says, Where is myc guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? 15and he d will shew you a large upper room furnished ready. There make ready for us. 16And his disciples went away and came into the city, and found as he had said to them; and they made ready the passover.
. . . 22And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken bread, when he had blessed, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take this e: this is my body. 23And having taken the cupf, when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank out of it. 24And he said to them, This is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many. 25Verily I say to you, I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it newg in the kingdom of God. 26And having sung a hymnh, they went out to the mount of Olives
1Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the passover, drew nigh, 2and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.
. . . 7And the day of unleavened bread came, in which the passover was to be killed. 8And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the passover for us, that we may eat it. 9But they said to him, Where wilt thou that we prepare it? 10And he said to them, Behold, as ye enter into the city a man will meet you, carrying an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in; 11and ye shall say to the master of the house, The Teacher says to thee, Where is the guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? 12And he will shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. 13And having gone they found it as he had said to them; and they prepared the passover.
14And when the hour was come, he placed himself at table, and the [twelve a] apostles with him. 15And he said to them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. 16For I say unto you, that I will not eat any more at all of it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17And having received a cup, when he had given thanks he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. 18For I say unto you, that I will not drink at all b of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God come. 19And having taken a loafc, when he had given thanks, he broke [it], and gave [it] to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup [is] the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Notes
Notes
Notes
aOr ‘given thanks’
b Not in all MSS
c Strengthened negative
a or ‘lest it may be, suggesting something uncertain which might happen at any time. –‘for’ refers to ‘subtlety’
gκαινός/ kainos/Strong2537 ew’‘in a new way’, not ‘an
hὑμνέω/humneó/Strong5214 -to sing a hymn or song
a Not all MSS, some omit ‘apostles’
b Some add ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ‘from now’
c Or ‘bread’ as I Cor 11:23
Synopsis
Synopsis
Synopsis
The Lord had finished His discourses. He prepares to suffer, and to make His last and touching farewells to His disciples, at the table of His last passover on earth, at which He instituted, the simple and precious memorial which recalls His sufferings and His love. This part of our Gospel needs to be felt rather than explained.
With what simplicity the Lord announces that which was to happen! He already arrived at Bethany, six days before the passover (John 12:1): there He abode, with the exception of the last supper, until He was taken captive in the garden of Gethsemane, although He visited Jerusalem, and partook of His last meal there.
He then points out that it is the slain Saviour slain who is to be remembered. His pathway as the living Messiah was over. It was no longer the remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. Christ, and Christ slain, began an entirely new order of things. He draws the deciples’ attention to the blood of the new covenant, saying that it was ‘shed for many.’ – i.e. Jew and Gentile. It was shed for the remission of sins.
The scribes and Pharisees were already consulting how they might take Him by craft and put Him to death. They feared the influence of the people, who admired the works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. Therefore they wished to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when the multitude flocked to Jerusalem: but God had other purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb, blessed Lord! and He offers Himself as the victim of propitiation.
But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover that took place during the life of Jesus, the one in which He was Himself to be the Lamb. The memorial to faith was that of Himself and of His work. He therefore sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep the feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to converse with them, and to testify His love for them as their companion, for the last time. But it is to tell them (for He must suffer everything) that one of them should betray Him.
It was Himself, His sacrifice, not a temporal deliverance, that they were to remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him dying on the cross. Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He lays the foundation of the new covenant in His blood (in a figure), giving it to them as participation in His death. When they had all drunk of it, He announces to them that it is the seal of the new covenant a thing well known to the Jews, according to Jeremiah; adding that it was shed for many. Death was to come in for the establishment of the new covenant, and for the ransom of many. Death was necessary, and the bonds of earthly association between Jesus and His disciples were dissolved
The chief priests, fearing the people, seek how they may kill Him. The day of Passover comes, and the Lord shows the character of the gospel. Thus He desired to eat this last Passover with His disciples, because He would eat of it no more until the future kingdom s – His death came first. Now we enjoy the kingdom as it is now, not the millennium. Observe also what a touching expression of love we have here: His heart needed this last testimony of affection before leaving them.
The new covenant is founded on the blood here drunk in figure. The old was done away. Blood was required to establish the new. At the same time the covenant itself was not established; but everything was done on God’s part. The blood was not shed to give force to a covenant of judgment like the first; it was shed for those who received Jesus, while waiting for the time when the covenant itself should be established with Israel in grace.
John 2
23And when he was in Jerusalem, at the passover, at the feast, many believed on a his name, beholding his signs which he wrought. 24But Jesus himself did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men, 25and that he had not need that any should testify of man, for himself knew b what was in man.
Notes
a εἰς/ eis/Strong1519 Strong says ‘indicating the point reached or entered, of place, time, purpose, result’ JND on 2 Tim 1:12 ‘εἰς τίνα/eis tina/ – followed by εἰς/eis and the accusative (frequently in John) is to believe on a person as an object of faith
bἐγίνωσκω/eginōsó/
Strong1097 – a strong word, meaning ‘to know well’ or ‘recognise’
Synopsis
None
John 6
1After these things Jesus went away beyond the sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias, 2and a great crowd followed him, because they saw the signs which he wrought upon the sick. 3And Jesus went up into the mountain a, and there sat with his disciples: 4but the passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5Jesus then, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a great crowd is coming to him, says to Philip, Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat? 6But this he said trying him, for he knew what he was going to do.
Notes
aThe mountain country – note to Matt 5:1 – not a particular mountain, but mountain in contrast with the plain.
Synopsis
It was on the occasion of the Passover, a type which the Lord was to fulfil by the death of which He spoke. Observe, here, that all these chapters present the Lord, and the truth that reveals Him, in contrast with Judaism, which He forsook and set aside
John 11
45Many therefore of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he a had done, believed on him; 46but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many signs. 48If we let him thus alone, all will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. 49But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, Ye know nothing 50nor consider that it is profitable for you b that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish.
. . . 55But the passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover, that they might purify themselves. 56They sought therefore Jesus, and said among themselves, standing in the temple, What do ye think? that he will not come to the feast? 57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment that if any one knew where he was c, he should make it known, that they might take him.
Notes
a Some MSS read ‘Jesus’
b Some MSS read ‘for us’ or omit these two words completely
c Lit ‘is’
Synopsis
None
John 12
1Jesus therefore, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where was the dead man Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from among the dead.
. . . 20And there were certain Greeks among those who came up that they might worship a in the feast; 21these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him saying, Sir, we desire to see Jesus. 22Philip comes and tells Andrew, and again Andrew comes and Philip, and they tell Jesus.
Notes
aπροσκυνέω/proskuneó/Strong4352 Strong- to do reverence to – (prós, “towards” and kyneo, “to kiss”) – properly, to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to worship, ready “to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one’s knees”. JND (Matt 4:9 ‘an act of personal reverence and homage – not ‘worship’ as ‘service’ in modern language.
Synopsis
None
John 13
1Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the enda.
Notes
a ‘To the end’ does not give the full force, for it makes it refer to time, whereas going through with everything is impled.
Synopsis
None
John 18
38Pilate says to him, What is truth? And having said this he went out again to the Jews, and says to them, I find no fault whatever in him. 39But ye have a custom that I release some one to you at the passover; will ye therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews? 40They cried therefore again all, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
Notes
None
Synopsis
When brought before Pilate (although because of truth, confessing that He was king), the Lord acts with the same calmness and the same submission; but He questions Pilate and instructs him in such a manner that Pilate can find no fault in Him. Morally incapable, however, of standing at the height of that which was before him, and embarrassed in presence of the divine prisoner, Pilate would have delivered Him by availing himself of a custom, then practised by the government, of releasing a culprit to the Jews at the passover. But the uneasy indifference of a conscience which, hardened as it was, bowed before the presence of One who (even while thus humbled) could not but reach it, did not thus escape the active malice of those who were doing the enemy’s work. The Jews exclaim against the proposal which the governor’s disquietude suggested, and chose a robber instead of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5
6Your boasting [is] not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Purge out a the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened. For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed; 8so that let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.
Notes
a As in 2 Tim 2:21 – ἐκκαθαίρω/ ekkathairó/Strong1571 – Strong ‘cleanse out, clean thoroughly’
JND The word translated purified in 2 Tim 2:21 with his addition [in separating himself from them] is found only in 2 Tim 2:21 and 1 Cor 5:7 translated ‘purge out’. There it was to get rid of the old leaven out of the lump; in 2 Tim it is for the one who names the name of the Lord to purge himself from among the vessels. Hence we have the additional preposition ἀπό /apo/Strong575 ‘away from’, which is rendered ‘separating from’. Lit ‘purified himself away from these’
Synopsis
Discipline follows; for Christ had been offered up as the Paschal Lamb, and they were to keep the feast without leaven, keeping themselves from the old leaven; in order that they might be in fact, what they were before God an unleavened lump.
Hebrews 11
27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing a the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible. 28By faith he celebrated b the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
Notes
a These are aorists, but in English the present participle is joined to the present tense as characterising the action. ‘He refused…choosing’. ‘He refused…having chosen’ would make a different time of it, not the same. In Greek all is referred to the time of speaking.
bHere, as in verse 17, the offering up of Isaaac, the verbs are in the perfect. This is remarkable. The other facts are generally passing facts, part of the whole history; these are of standing significance, either figurateively standing the believer on a new ground, or viewed as continuing till the time of the epistle: ‘By faith Abraham has offered’, ‘By faith he has celebrated’, but this is not possible in English. It was not external continuence, for the blood sprinkling was only once.
Synopsis
Faith recognised the testimony of God by trusting to the efficacy of the blood sprinkled on the door. God would come in judgment, and seeing the blood, would pass over His believing people. By faith Moses kept the passover. Observe here that, by the act of putting the blood on the door, the people acknowledged that they were as much the objects of the just judgment of God as the Egyptians. God had given them that which preserved them from it; but it was because they were guilty and deserved it. No one can stand before God.
In John we have the divine person of the Lord as life and light. We also have the sending of the Comforter down here in His place. Finally John gives us a brief view of the whole course of the dispensation until the millennial kingdom.
In John we have the divine person of the Lord as life and light. We also have the sending of the Comforter down here in His place. Finally John gives us a brief view of the whole course of the dispensation until the millennial kingdom.
Chapter 1
John 1:1-18 presents the person of the Lord Jesus. Though largely shown to be God, the Lord is, from v.14 onwards, always looked at in John as a man living on earth, manifesting the Father.
in verses 1-5 – abstractedly, as to His nature, and the effect of His appearing
verses 6-11, John’s testimony to this, and the effect of his coming
verses 12, 13, the effect and way of grace
verses 14-18, the Word made flesh;
Then:
verses 19-34, John’s testimony to what He would be as to His work and effectual power for man – Lamb of God, Baptiser with the Holy Ghost, owned here Son of God by the Holy Ghost descending on Him
verses 35-42, John’s testimony historically gathering to Him (this is the first day of active gathering)
verse 43 to end, the Lord’s gathering
This embraces God’s dealing with the remnant during the life of Christ’s here, and afterwards, till He is owned by the remnant at the end. This is represented by Nathanael. He is owned as Son of God, King of Israel, but takes a wider title too, that of Son of man, on whom the angels wait.
Note in v. 38-42 that Christ is the divine centre, God is manifest in flesh; and secondly we have the only path through the world when Jesus says, “Follow me”.
The world is condemned,
Christ separates His own out of it to Himself, as
God is revealed
Heaven is opened on Him, and the angels wait upon Him as Man.
Note, we have our part as Stephen had – heaven opened, and He, the Son of man, there. Note too, that Christ does not have an object to look at, but we have one – He is the object.
Chapter 2 v.1-22 gives the millennial character of the third-day concerning Israel:
the marriage
purifying judgment.
In v. 23-25 the Lord does not accept a present reception according to the intelligence of flesh.
However, in chapter 3, a man must be born again. This is true even for the earthly promises made to Israel. But the thoughts of God for man go on to heaven, for the divine Son of man came down from heaven and He speaks of it. God loves the world, and gives us to believe in Him by faith individually so as not to perish. This introduces the cross, the Son of man lifted up like the serpent – the Son of God given. Condemnation hangs on believing or not in the Son of God; for light has come into the world, but men love darkness. This is a great moral truth altogether outside Israel. Jesus has fully revealed heaven as He knows it, and made man, by believing in Him, fit for it. John then bears witness to Christ, in contrast to himself and his testimony, as divine and heavenly: the One to whom His Father has given all. Those who believe in Him have life; those who do not believe, will not see life and wrath abides on them. All this ministry was prior to His entering on His public ministry, for this took place after John had been cast into prison.
Chapter 4: The jealousy of the Jews drives Him from Judea. The woman of Samaria, who is outside and independent of Judaism is brought in. God is present there to give the living water. The Lord humbly asks her for a drink: this blessedly inspires confidence for her to ask for it, He having already given her the desire. Now she has a spiritual spring rising up to eternal life within her. But nature cannot receive spiritual things. God reaches the conscience by the word. This is recognised as of Him, and then Christ is known and owned as Saviour of the world. And though salvation be of the Jews, God, who is a Spirit, must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. And the Father (the name now revealed in grace) seeks such to worship Him, meeting a needy soul. This is Jesus’ joy in grace.
In Chapter 5 we find that law, with all its ordinances, can do nothing through the weakness of the flesh. The truth however is, that the Father and the Son are working, not man. The Jews cannot have their sabbath in sin and misery. But as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to Jesus the Son to have life in Himself, and He quickens whom He will; and committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honour Him as they honour the Father. There is no confusion in these ways of honouring Him. He who hears His word, and believes on the Father who sent Him, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. There is then a resurrection to life, and another to judgment (see v. 30-47). Jesus is presented as life to the responsible man, witnessed by John Baptist, the Lord’s works, the Father, and the scriptures. But the Jews, who rejected Moses’ writings speaking of Christ, would not receive Him or His works. When the false one comes in his own name, they will receive him.
Chapter 6 gives a picture of the order of God’s ways in Christ. Already Prophet, He would not be King, but goes on high alone to pray. During this time the disciples are toiling without Him against the wind; He rejoins them, and they are at land. This is in connection with the passover, and Christ’s proving Himself the Jehovah of Psalm 132. (Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength) v.8JND. Instead of that now, He is the bread coming down from heaven to give life to the world, and must be received spiritually and inwardly as the One incarnate, but also as dying, as there is no life in any man. Also He, the Son of man was going up to where He was before.
In chapter 7, the Jews (His brethren) do not believe on Him, and He cannot show Himself to the world. This is the feast of tabernacles. He promises the Spirit to those who believe: instead of His visible presence, as rivers of living water, springing up unto eternal life. The Jews (of Judea) and people (Galilee, etc.) are distinguished.
Chapter 8 gives the word rejected; chapter 9 the works.
In chapter 8 Christ is the light of the world and the Light to lead. He deals with conscience in contrast with the difference between gross sins and sinfulness. His word is the absolute expression of Himself. He is from above; unbelieving man is of the devil from beneath, The devil is a liar and a murderer, and abides not in the truth. Jesus is God, and the Jews reject Him.
In chapter 9 He gives eyes to see. This is by incarnation, which in itself gives no spiritual sight. However, by the Spirit and word, He is known as the sent One, there is sight. He is confessed as Prophet, and then through the word received, He is believed on as the Son.
Chapter 10 gives us His care of the sheep. They are put out, but He goes before. He comes in by, and is, the appointed way, giving salvation, liberty, and pasture. He lays down His life for the sheep; He knows them, and they Him, as His Father knew Him, and He His Father. In laying down His life, He becomes the special object and motive for His Father’s love. He has other sheep (Gentiles), and there is to be one flock (not fold), one Shepherd. He goes from His obedient lowliness to being one with His Father. Father and Son are the names of grace.
In chapter 11 He is declared Son of God by resurrection power. He is the Resurrection and the Life. When He is present, the dead live, and the living do not die. But while showing divine power, He is the dependent Son as man. He feels for and with us, but He is always heard.
In chapter 12 He is the Son of David. The time of His glory as Son of man has come. But then He must die. Before this, He is received at Bethany, where the taught remnant enter into His death. This lays the ground for the new thing, while the enmity ripens. His death, as rejected by the hopeless and judicially blinded hostility of Israel, now comes fully before us.
Chapter 13: His departure does not close His service to His disciples. He fits them to be with Him when He cannot stay with them. This is essentially necessary according to His true nature and glory. He came from God, and went to God; the Father had given all things into His hand. His human nature continued in divine purity and perfectness, whereas man was traitorously hostile. He loved His own who were in this world absolutely and He loved them through all, to the end. Having regenerated them by the word, He washes their feet as their servant, and gives them an example in service. He shows His personal love to them, the advantage of habitual nearness to Him to be able to know His mind. After Judas had gone out, He shows that the foundation of the new, but essential and everlasting, relationship with God is laid in the cross, under the title of Son of man. The Son of man is glorified in it, with all the essential attributes of God seen in Him. God is glorified in Him, but does not wait for the kingdom. He glorifies Him in Himself, and does so immediately. He then tells them to love to one another, but warns Peter he could not follow Him now. The path was through death, destruction, and wrath for man, as having only natural life. Note, in the washing: at first one is washed or bathed all over. This cannot be repeated. It is the feet which pick up dirt in the walk; but the believer is fundamentally clean, once and for all
In chapter 14, the Lord first shows that, though absent, He is an object of faith as God is. He was not going to heaven to be at ease, and though they were distressed, He said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled’. If that had been the end, He would have told them. But He went to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house, and would come again and receive them. Then we learn what they had in His presence, and what they would have after His departure. They knew where He went, for He was going to the Father, and they had seen the Father in Him. They knew the way, for in coming to Him they found the Father. He could not stay, but on His going He would ask, and the Father would send, another Comforter to stay and dwell in them. He had as yet been only among them. Now they would know Him. If a man kept His words, His Father would love him, and He, Jesus, would manifest Himself to Him. If he kept His word, His Father and He would come and make their abode with him. He left peace with them, giving them His own peace. Next, he expected in His disciples such love that they should be glad that He went, that is that they should be interested in His happiness, an immense witness of His nearness.
In chapter 15 Christ replaces Israel, the old but not the true vine on the earth; the disciples are branches, clean through the word. The Father purified the fruit-bearing, cutting off the unfruitful branches. They were to abide in Him, and He in them. If a man (not they) did not, he would be cast out and burnt. If they abode in Him, and His words abode in them, they would be endowed with power. Dependence and confidence (Christ’s words) are first; desires and thoughts come next. In bearing fruit they would resemble Him.
Next, they were to abide in His love: this by obedience, and all this that their joy might be full. They were to love one another, as He had loved them. He laid down His life for His friends: they were such (not He their friend – that He is Friend to sinners; but they are His friends) – that they might love one another. The world would hate them, as it had Him. Next, the Comforter would come, and testify of Him. As glorified, The Father would send Him; and they would testify of Christ as having been with Him.
Note that in chapter 14 the Father sends the Comforter. He brings to their remembrance that all He had said to them. Thus their witness was made good. But He would also reveal His heavenly glory, sending the Spirit from the Father.
Chapter 16 gives the Comforter, as present down here and His work in the world and in the church, in contrast with the disciples’ own state in a hostile world and with blinded Judaism. The disciples, absorbed with their loss, did not look to what God was bringing about; yet the Comforter’s presence was worth His leaving. He would demonstrate to the world sin, righteousness, and judgment:
Sin in rejecting Christ; for His presence proved the rejected one, gone to the Father.
Righteousness, as He was deservedly God’s righteousness, and the world (disciples and all), who had rejected Him, would never see Him again. The breach was absolute.
Judgment: the world was convinced of judgment, because its prince, who had led it against Christ, was judged. That was the proof of Christ’s power over him and his wickedness. Satan’s position was a judged one already.
The Comforter would guide the disciples into all the truth. He would show them things to come – Christ’s things, all the Father had. However soon He would see them again (that is, after His resurrection), and they would enter into the consciousness of their relationship with the Father. As yet they would be scattered, and He would be left alone; but He had the Father with Him. They might be of good cheer because He had overcome the world.
In chapter 17 Christ addresses the Father before He departs.
Verses 1-5: He lays the ground of all He has to ask. Having finished the work, He is to be glorified as Son. He establishes the glorious relationship, and our title to enter into it. He has power over all flesh, and gives eternal life to those saints that the Father had given Him. The knowledge of the Father, and of Him as sent, is eternal life.
Verses 6-8 put the disciples in their position. He manifested the Father’s name to them: so the relationship would be founded. They knew Him as having all things from the Father, not Messiah’s Jewish glory from Jehovah. All that the Father had communicated to Him in His position, He had given to them, so that they might enjoy it fully as well as having it.
In verses 9-13 He prays the disciples – those who had been given Him by the Fathe. He does not pray for the world. They are the Father’s (all is mutually possessed), and He, Christ, is glorified in them. The object is that they might have His joy complete in them.
In verses 14-19 they are put into the place of His testimony. The word (not words) was in connection with the place of relationship: not of the world. Christ was not of the world: they were not to be taken out of it, but kept from evil. They were to be morally set apart to the Father by the truth, the Father’s word. They are sent by Christ into the world as He had been sent by the Father. And He set Himself apart to the Father as the heavenly Man. The Holy Spirit might set them apart. It was Christ as well as truth, but still truth.
In verses 20, 21, He prays that those that believe through their word should be one in the Father and Son: that the world may believe.
In verses 22, 23, He has given them the glory, in order that they might be one in the display of that glory, and that the world may know it.
In verses 24-26 He would have them where He is: He who was loved before the world was. They are loved as He was. He had and would declare the Father’s name, that they might enjoy it, He being in them.
Chapter 18: We have to remark the character both of Gethsemane and the cross. It is the Son of God above the temptation, seen out of the suffering. There is no “if it be possible let the cup pass“, no “why hast thou forsaken me?” Those who had been sent to take Him go backward and fall to the ground. He puts Himself forward that the disciples might escape untouched.
In chapter 19, He heals in the garden, but Peter denies Him. In calm superiority, He answers the chief priests and Pilate, who witnessed that He was truth. Yet He submits to him as to power given from above, but Pilate leaves it to the priests to settle the matter. The Jews deny having any king but Caesar. The Jews are treated with slight, as everywhere in this Gospel.
On the cross, knowing that one scripture had yet to be fulfilled, He commends His mother to the beloved disciple, and charges him to be to her as a son. He then gives up His spirit. Of Him not a bone is broken, but He is with the rich in His death.
Chapter 20 gives us a picture of the whole time, from the remnant, through the church period and on to the converted remnant when they see the Lord. Mary Magdalene, who represents the remnant, called as a sheep by her name, is attached personally to the Lord. Then the disciples are now called brethren, in the same relationship to God and the Father as Himself. They are gathered and are told ‘Peace be unto you’ (v.19). They receive the Holy Spirit, and are sent by Christ for remission of sins. Lastly the remnant (Thomas), who did not believe at first, does on seeing. But they who have believed without seeing, are especially blessed. Twice therefore, He had shown Himself.
In Chapter 21 we have the great gathering of the millennial time: the net does not break at all. Christ had some fish on shore already; these had been brought in from the great waters. Peter, restored, has to care for Christ’s sheep, especially the Jewish flock. Thus we have the Peter’s ministry to the Jewish church. John is left to watch in his ministry over the saints and witness of God till Christ comes. This carries us on to the Apocalypse. John’s epistles and the Revelation refer to Christ’s appearing. Paul’s ministry comes in between, and speaks of the hidden mystery, the church and the rapture, before the appearing.
Originally by JND. Lightly edited by Sosthenes, July 2014
