Did you know that we can learn a lot about the seating arrangement at the Last Supper just by reading the Scriptures? And we can learn a lot about what Jesus was teaching His disciples by looking at that seating arrangement of the key players. As we look at Scripture, which we will do tonight, we will see where Jesus sat the key players and the lessons intended for the disciples as well as for us. Hi, I'm Sam Hunter. This is 721 Live, the video arm of 721 Ministries. I'm glad you're with us. Thank you for joining us. It is Easter week, and we are going to look at the Last Supper today. But before we get into that, I want to draw your attention to the screen, and you'll see a very familiar statement. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And I'm showing you one of our websites, puttinggreenblog.com, puttinggreenblog.com, where we post our blogs each week. And if you go there, you'll find the latest article on My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? Now, the reason I bring this to your attention is that all of our lives we've been taught when Jesus cries this out on the cross, That he is he feels forsaken by his heavenly father because he's taken on the sins of the world And it's and god cannot look on sin and therefore he turns his back on jesus and jesus feels forsaken Right, you've heard that That is the exact opposite of what is happening. The exact opposite of what is happening. Jesus is telling those that are around him, he has not forsaken me. But you'll have to go look at the article to understand all the details behind it. So I encourage you to go to puttinggreenblog.com to see that article and learn the truth. Okay, we are at the Last Supper. And we are getting to the point where what Jesus said to Nicodemus all the way back in John 3 is coming to fruition. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And now the Son is going to give Himself for us. I want to correct something on that passage. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes... Now we want to be sure that you understand that believe is a terrible translation. A terrible translation that the word Pistuio really means trust in, surrenders to, utterly depends upon. Not just believes, but casts their entire dependence upon it. So whoever trust in, surrenders to, utterly depends on, him jesus shall not perish but have eternal life so here we are now we're fulfilling that we're seeing it come to fruition on at this time of the year when jesus is going to give himself god the father gave his son to us to live with us among us for thirty something years and have a public ministry of three and a half years and then he and then the son gave himself so that we don't have to perish but it's not about believing it's about surrendering to and trusting him Now as we get started I want to point out where we picked up where I want to pick up where we finished last week when we were talking about Jesus and coming down Palm Sunday and as he looked at Jerusalem and wept and We talked about why he wept so let's look at that passage again because it pertains to what we're going to talk about today Luke 18 15 people this is as Jesus is on his way to Coming up through Jericho towards Bethany coming into the Palm Sunday People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them when the disciples saw this They rebuked them and and you can just see them saying Jesus is too busy for babies He's got a ministry. He's headed to Jerusalem for Passover But Jesus called the children to him and said and we better pay attention to what he said here Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." When Jesus says that unless you do something you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, we want to know what he means by that. like a little child. The trusting nature of a little child, not the innocence of a little child, because little children aren't innocent. They're born simple, just like the grown-ups are. All you have to do is be around a two-year-old for a minute to know that, but they trust, they depend on, for provision from their parents. So Jesus says, unless you're willing to be that way, to have the heart of a child, towards the Heavenly Father, you're not going to enter. This is not for grown-up intellectual adults. This is not for the smartest people on the block. This is not for those who think they can work their way in. No, this is for those who will cast their utter dependence upon Jesus. So then we get to the point where he's looking at Jerusalem and he's weeping. This is Luke 13. This is a little bit earlier. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often... Look at the language now. How often I have longed to gather your children together, your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." You were not willing. Jesus says, I want you like children I want to gather you, like a mother hen gathers her little chicks You're not willing and over the 20 years. We've been doing 721 ministries I've seen man after man that just was not willing to receive the kingdom of God like a child And it broke Jesus's heart and it breaks my heart Now at the Last Supper, we're going to see two players here two individuals who were not willing Who were not willing to do it Jesus's way now who were those two? Think about it for a moment were not willing to do it Jesus' way. You would think the obvious answer would be Judas, and yes, Judas was not willing to do it Jesus' way, so he betrayed Jesus. Who was the second person who was not willing to do it Jesus' way? Peter. We'll see that in a moment. And we'll understand what Peter is objecting to and why he won't do it Jesus way as we tease this out But look before we go any further. Let me just ask you if you were to just think about Jesus's main teachings What was the thrust of his ministry his teachings his lifestyle just think about that for a moment? What words would come to mind? Perhaps love let's just look at a few Love each other love your enemies and serve others, turn the other cheek, what we call power down, not power up. What else might you add to that? Forgive. Trust. We said turn the other cheek. Humble yourself. Now see, what I contend is that we will see all of these, Jesus will live these out at the Last Supper, his entire three and a half year public ministry. will be lived out at the table for the last supper. We'll see forgiveness. We'll see love your enemy. We'll see love your neighbor. We'll see humble yourself. We'll see serve. We'll see turn the other cheek. All of these things we're going to see as Jesus plays out this drama at the last supper. Now we know, we know from the history books that what that table would've looked like. It was called a triclinian table, and I'll show you a picture in a minute, but we know from the Greco-Roman history, we also know from the Jewish history that this was the way the Last Supper seating would've been then. It was the way any type of special event seating would've been, any type of banquet seating, oftentimes any type of gathering for a meal. We'll see the way this table is laid out. It's a triclinian table. There are three sides to it the servants can serve each person as they sit right in between between these tables Now what we will see from the scripture is that Jesus we know that the host sits at this chair This is at this place. I should say no chairs. No chairs. We'll see that in a minute. Jesus sits at this place We know that's where the host is. We know that the host right-hand man sits to his right and And we know from the Greco-Roman world that the guest of honor is seated to the left of the host. Now what you're going to see is that John is seated to the right in Jesus' right-hand man. Judas is seated to his left in the guest of honor seat. What? But perhaps even more interesting, more compelling, is where Peter is sitting. Peter is sitting all the way over here in the servant's seat. That is where the servant would sit so he could go back and forth getting more food and more beverage and coming in and serving the different people at the table. Peter's in the dunce seat. He's got a little dunce cap on and he's probably He is sitting exactly in the one place he would never expect to sit. Now I want you to understand that they didn't sit at chairs. These were low tables, just a foot or so off the floor. And the men would lay on their left elbow with their legs extended back behind them. That way the servants could wash their feet as they were preparing for the meal. They would lay on their left elbow, and they would reach around with their right arm, and they would eat the food. They typically bread with some type of stew. They didn't have utensils back then. The Jews didn't. So they would use bread to dip the stew or the soup out, and that would be the way they would have their meal. So we know that this is the way they were. This is another view of it. You can see the food, the furnishings are in the middle, and you can see how the table comes around. This is another just a drawing that we picked up where it shows again, John, Jesus, Judas and Peter all the way over in the servant seat. And then this one gives us a little more accurate view of where how John would have been sitting. I don't know that Jesus would have been sitting up, but each one of these would have been more likely see Peter over in this corner and John here. Laying back with their left shoulder in so that they are That this is the traditional setting so that they can then reach over with the right hand now This is going to tell us a lot about where the different people were sitting just by looking at John's description of this meal and the way the thing way it all played out and Jesus said this in Matthew 20. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. So He's going to show us what it looks like to live out that servanthood. But I call Philippians 2, 3-11, the other John 3.16. The other John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, His one and only Son. Now we pick this up. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. Now, let's pause before we go any further. How are you doing on that? Others more important than you? Not thinking about yourself? Living in humility? Valuing others over yourself? How are we doing on that? I think I could answer that for you pretty poorly. This is the way Jesus wants us to live. But now before we jump into the seating arrangements, I just have to show you something that just really piques my interest about the disciples being so human. We see this about Peter and John in Luke 22. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest. Now wait a minute. We're at Passover meal. How in the world are they arguing amongst each other about who's the greatest? Well, remember we have two sets of brothers here two little brothers two big brothers and I can imagine that they were arguing back and forth about whether it was James or Peter who was the greatest but let's keep going Jesus says but you are not to be like that instead the greatest and I show Peter here with a question mark because Peter thought he was supposed to be the greatest, and quite frankly, Jesus meant for him to be the leader, especially moving into the first century as the church would expand, as the family of followers would expand. He was supposed to be the leader. Instead, the greatest, Peter, among you should be like the youngest, John, who was the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Jesus is communicating several lessons tonight at the table at the Lord's Supper with the seating arrangement He's got Peter sitting in the servant seat and he's telling Peter Peter. I need for you to be my right-hand man. I Need for you to be the man. I turn to To lean on I need for you to lead this family of followers as I'm gone and the Holy Spirit comes I need you but you You don't know yet what it looks like to be a servant. And so, I'm going to put John, who's the youngest, in your seat until you learn what it looks like, what it means to be a servant. You remember, in Luke's version, Jesus says to Peter, Satan has asked to sift you like weed. And I'm going to let him. Because when you've gone through it, and your faith has not failed, and you've regained it, and you've brought yourself back, then you'll be ready to lead my sheep and feed my sheep. But right now, I've got to shift you so that we can get your heart and your mind back towards being a servant. Because I cannot use you until you do. Already we're seeing these messages communicated. Now let's go on to the Last Supper. Here's Peter. It was just before the Passover. We're going to see a lot about Peter's why I have his name there. It was just before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power and that He had come from God and was returning to God. So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Now let's just pause for a moment and think about this. Peter's sitting in the servant seat. He is the one who's supposed to wash the disciples' feet. You know, there is no chance Peter's gonna do that I can only imagine and I'm just imagining I can only imagine Jesus sitting there and it's time for the meal to get ready to go it's time for the the guests feet to be washed and Can you just see Jesus looking at Peter and just fixing his eyes on him as if are you gonna do it Peter? Are you gonna do what you're supposed to do? I'll put you over there. This is your job I can just imagine that eye contact and And I can imagine Peter just looking down and saying no, I'm I mean to himself. I'm not gonna do it That's the one thing I won't do Remember, I started at the very beginning talking Jesus saying but they were not willing They were not willing to do it my way. They were not willing to humble themselves like little children they were not willing to be servants to be gathered under a mother hen and Peter has no interest in that. He is not willing. And so Jesus gets up out of the host seat and starts to do what Peter should be doing. Now, think about the tension rising as Jesus goes, washes John's feet, washes Judas's feet, and then goes around the table. Can you imagine Peter sitting there watching this happening? I mean, The irritation, the anger, the humiliation, his face is beet red. He cannot believe that Jesus is doing this because he sure as heck ain't going to do it himself. And finally Jesus makes his way around to him and Peter says, you're going to wash my feet? You're not going to wash my feet. We're not doing this. And Jesus said, yes, but I have to. I must. And so, Peter says, no, you shall never wash my feet, because Peter, as well as Judas, but Peter is more like us than we can only imagine. He is not willing to do it Jesus' way. He's not willing to take that servant's role. Are you? You see, I want to be Jesus' right-hand man. I want to sit, I want to be of help to him. I want him to use me. to further his kingdom. But am I willing to start as a servant? To have a servant's heart? Let's keep going. John's version tells us where everybody is seated. I'm not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture. He who has shared my bread has turned against me. That's Psalm 41, 9. After he said this Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified very truly I tell you one of you is going to betray me when he says he who shared my bread has turned against me. At the beginning of a meal we know that what the host would do is he would remember he's laying on his left shoulder with his right hand he would lean over he would grab the bread. He would dip it in the stew. They didn't use utensils. He would dip it in the stew and hand it to the guest of honor. That's how you started the meal. Everybody at the table knew you didn't start until the host dipped his bread in the stew and handed it to the guest of honor. That's not so unusual. That's not so different from the way we do things. When I was growing up, we had Sunday dinner at my grandmother's house every Sunday after church, and we knew. that we didn't pick up our fork to start eating until my grandmother picked up her fork. Just like this. They knew that the start, and so when Jesus says, he who shared my bread has turned against me, he's going to live that out very shortly as it starts. Now this is a really interesting note that Matthew gives us, and there's two things to tease out of this. They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, surely you don't mean me, Lord, Each one of the disciples asked that question, Surely you don't mean me, Lord? Jesus replied, The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, Surely you don't mean me, Rabbi. So back to our table. Jesus is sharing the bowl with Judas. And so he says, the one who shares the bowl with me. Now, there's a couple of things I want you to understand in this. And I want you to really think about this. Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me. And each one of the disciples asks, not me, Lord. Not me, master. That's what Lord means. Not me, master. Each one of them uses that term of endearment, that term of respect. When he gets to Judas, he says, not me, rabbi. Not me teacher. The disciples, the other disciples considered Jesus to be their Lord, their master. Judas considered him to be his teacher, his rabbi. What is Jesus to you? Is he your Lord? Is he your master? Or is he just someone you can learn from, that you can hopefully glean some good ways to live, some good decision making, some wisdom, some nice platitudes? Fear that too many people who call themselves Christians would never call Jesus Lord would never call him master One of the great joys in my life has been the process that he has taken me through To get myself out of the way so that he becomes more and more Lord of my life and it is a process and it's like for me it's been a long process, but the joy that comes from I've become more and more a Servant of his you remember the writers of the New Testament would constantly can refer to themselves as a slave The your translation may say servant, but the word they used in the Greek was slave He's he's in control And I love that life before I was like Peter. No, I'm not willing to have you I know you're not gonna wash my we're not gonna do it your way and But the more I know him, the more I learn to love him, the more I realize how much he loves me, I'm happy for him to be my master. Judas just considered him to be his teacher. How about you? Now there's another thing to notice here, to glean out of here. Each one of the disciples asked, it's not me, I'm not the one who's going to betray you. Why are they even asking that? They know they haven't gone to the Jewish officials. They know they haven't gotten 30 pieces of silver. They know they haven't arranged to betray Jesus. Even Judas asked the question, but what interests me about these disciples is they're all asking, you're not talking about me, are you? I think about if Jesus came into a room and There were several of a bunch of us there and he said one of you is gonna betray me Who of us would say he's not talking about me is he I? Probably could do it. I probably might do it. I probably have done it. I hope he's not talking about me And how many of us would sit there rest assured? He's not talking about me. He's talking about one of these other people I would never do it. Isn't that what Peter said? I would never do it. I And yet he did. Isn't that interesting to think about? All the disciples asked the question, heck, I hope he's not talking about me. I probably might. I know I have. I hope he's not talking about me. Would you sit in that room and think he could not possibly be talking about me? Or would you be like the disciples and go, gosh, I hope he's not talking about me. Now, we come to the next picture. or the next scripture that gives us the setting, one of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means. Now think about this. We see that John is reclining next to him. Remember, they're laying on their left arm, their left shoulder. John is here, Jesus is here, he's reclining next to him. Who at that table, who at that triclinium table, at that U-shaped table, would be better seated, better positioned to whisper across, to motion across to John, asking which one he's talking about. Well, Peter, he's right across that little opening. Ask him which one he's talking about. Which one does he mean? Leaning back against Jesus, that would be John, leaning back against Jesus, he asked, Lord, who is it? And we get another indication of Judas. Jesus answered, it is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish. And then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas. So we're back to this picture. John leans back against Jesus. Peter motions across. Ask him. John leans back and asks Jesus. And Jesus says, it's the one whom I'm going to give this loaf of this piece of bread. And so he dips it in and he gives it to Judas. Now after this is all over, and the disciples have survived Jesus' death, he's been with them, he's gone back, imagine them sitting around at some point and going, wait a minute, wait a minute, do you realize that Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him? And yet he put him in the guest of honor seat. What was he doing? And can you imagine them just totally befuddled trying to understand how he could have done that? And then perhaps one of them said, oh, but didn't that what he taught us? Isn't that what he said? Love your enemies. Forgive your enemies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Wasn't he just living out exactly what he wants us to do, what he taught us to do? In Judas. sitting in the guest of honor seat knowing what he's doing and i think judas did not know what he was doing i think he thought he was just forcing jesus's hand to come out and be the conquering messiah that is my belief about judas i may be wrong but it seems that the the the intense remorse that he felt when he saw that his plan had backfired he went back to the jewish authorities and he said i've made a mistake i betrayed an innocent man and they said well we don't care Keep your money and he throws the money back in and goes and hangs himself. So I believe Judas did not mean to actually He did mean to betray him but only in the sense of forcing his hand But I could be wrong and I get the question all the time. Where is Judas and What I know is that Jesus when talking about the man that would betray him said it would be better that he was not ever born So I you take from that whatever you want to take from that But Judas had to be sitting in that seat thinking, he's putting me in the guest of honor seat. I hope his heart was cut to the core thinking, he's telling me that he loves me no matter what. He's telling me that he knows what I'm gonna do and he loves me anyway Enough to put me in the guest of honor seat So now we can sit back my friends and we can see these incredible lessons that Jesus is teaching just by the way, he arranged this table setting and the and the messages that he Was giving to his disciples to carry forth Peter if you want to be my right-hand man You've got to start in the servant seat Judas, you're going to betray me. I'm going to love you anyway, and I'm going to forgive you. And for the rest of you, I want you to see exactly what I'm going to do with my enemies. I'm going to love them. I'm going to forgive them. And I want you to do the same thing. Which seat do you want to be in? Which seat are you in right now? Do you think you're in the guest of honor seat? I hope not. Do you want to be Jesus is right-hand man and Are you willing to sit in the servant seat to do that? Which seat are you in? And to conclude I said at the very beginning I believe that the table arrangement tells us everything about Jesus teachings for three and a half years it just summarizes it captures everything he taught us and to love each other, to love your enemies, to serve others, to turn the other cheek, to power down, not power up, to forgive, to humble yourself. What Jesus does here is absolutely amazing. And I hope you'll think about it as you go through this Easter weekend. I hope you'll think about it as we move beyond this Easter weekend. And by the way, What I intend to do is Thursday night. I intend to read John 13 14 15 16 to 17 Jesus's Many words to us during that last supper and then I intend to wake up in the middle of night Friday night Thursday night, excuse me and be with Jesus for a while as he's going through what he's going through in the middle of the night and then on Friday I want to walk with him I want to be with him. I want to be at the cross like his mother Mary and John were. If he's going to go through that, I want to be with him because look at all the things he's done for us. So when you think about this table arrangement, I want you to remember there's more. There's so much more. You can have it. You know it and you can have it. Come follow Jesus and find it.