And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said unto His disciples. Matthew 26:1
Today’s text marks a significant point in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Until this point, He has been teaching, preaching, healing, and proving by His power and words that He is the Christ. All that has gone before the point of today’s text is the displaying of the Lamb of God as the One Who was worthy and acceptable to God. Just as the Passover lamb in Exodus must be kept from the tenth to the fourteenth day to prove its acceptableness, so too was the Lord Jesus placed before the world for examination by man and God to display His acceptableness. And today’s text marks the next phase of the Lord’s ministry, the preparation of the Lamb for the sacrifice.
What a privilege the disciples had, to listen to the Lord Jesus as He taught and explained and counselled! He was the only Teacher the world ever knew Who possessed all knowledge, Whose words were always and only truth, Whose advice and wisdom was always perfectly suited to what His audience needed to hear and could understand. His sayings included prophecy was was 100 percent accurate, guidance that was 100 percent reliable, and wisdom that was 100 percent true. The disciples, and others who listened to the words of the Lord Jesus, were blessed above measure to have the Son of God to speak to them. We today are blessed to have the words of the Lord Jesus preserved and delivered to us in the Gospels.
Our gathering together today to worship the Lord Jesus is in obedience to His sayings, because He told us that we are to eat the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of Himself. Our gathering is also in accordance with His saying that as we do so in His name, He occupies the place in our midst. Our remembrance recalls many of His sayings as we recount the events of His life and death, as we consider the doctrine concerning His incarnation and character, as we rehearse the greatness of His sacrifice for our sins.
The Lord Jesus told of a special blessing for those who would hear His words and do them. We enter into that blessing today as we remember Him. -Jim MacIntosh