The Eager Desire

May the name of the Lord be glorified this day. Praise the Lord. We all are. We are a family of brothers and sisters under our father God. Praise the Lord. So may the Lord bless us. Uh let us separate uh time for receiving the word. Let us prepare our hearts for the word of God. Praise God. The Gospel according to Luke chapter 22 14 and 15. Death is looming not in the horizon in front of Jesus. What is the eager desire? to eat Passover with his disciples. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Pastor Anil gave the message last Sunday. throughout the week that picture was so alive inside of my heart. You know the lamb that was slaughtered standing in the presence of the father and the heavenly beings interceding for us even today working actively uh to redeem our souls. Praise the Lord. the messages that exalt our lord in our lives is the best or the greatest messages we always hallelujah will be blessed with. So you know apostles did that they didn’t have worry about a lot of other stuff they focused on exalting the Lord. So that is what we are going to do here. So today Jesus and his disciples at the Passover table. Praise God. So the word eat is specifically written you know not celebrate Passover so eating Passover I’m not saying we have to eat Passover but the word is word is impressed there word is asserted there praise the lord see Jesus this is my eager desire this is my eager desire If I have an eager desire to do something, it will be very obvious. That is true. Right? If you are, if you want to go and challenge somebody, I will give out all the signs in my body language. My fist will be closed. I will be like like know tight and all that. If I want to go greet somebody, that is very obvious. see this um passage like uh Luke chapter 22, Mark chapter 26, I’m sorry, Mark chapter 14 and Matthew chapter 26. All these three chapters are full of the Passover background and many people are devising many stuff there. Priests are ready to deal with Jesus during the Passover. priests and scribes. The people are eagerly looking forward what is going to happen during Passover. Is Jesus going to come? Is he going to preach? Are they going to arrest him? The soldiers that the temple soldiers and the temple spies, they are also actively searching. Where is Jesus? Is he around? Huh? Everybody is actively involved. Their eager desire is to capture Jesus. And there is Judas. This is the time he is very active in the evil spirit. One person is silent about everything. He says he is eagerly desiring but we see that he’s not doing much there. Praise the Lord. Jesus has already celebrated at least 32 Passovers. Probably 32 33. This is the last Passover he’s going to celebrate. He started this as a baby you know and then when he was 12 years old we read in Luke 2 don’t have to read it but I will say chapter 2 verse 41 every year his parents went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and at 12 years he was at the temple celebrating his Passover and and then he was proclaimed as an adult there and Now as an adult minister, as a rabbi, he is there. At least three Passovers he has celebrated. Some theologians say he has celebrated maybe four pass four Passovers. In first time his first Passover as Jesus the rabbi or Jesus the Lord. We read in John 2:13 when he went and cleansed the table I mean temple. John 5:1 says the second Passover. That is the time he went to the pool of Bethesda and healed a paralytic. And the third is given in John chapter 6 verse4 where he was uh that was a time of Pesa and he fed 5,000 people. So that might be the four uh the the third one or it could be the fourth one is now he’s going to celebrate. Anyway, praise the Lord. Nobody what is happening? Why is he not speaking about the Passover? This is one of the biggest biggest festivals of the Jewish people. And that crisis we read in u Mark and Matthew. Mark and Matthew says that disciples came to Jesus and asked him where should we do the Pes or the Passover. But then Luke comes forth. Luke and Luke comes and corrects. Luke comes and adds Luke 228. So the next verses they asked him where should we said to him where will you have us prepared see so Matthew and Mark lost the first part that crisis is evident praise the lord and Jesus now tells them where to do it when you go out into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will come across you and he will greet you or you will meet him or he will meet you follow him. Like when Peter and John are walking in the city, here comes a man with a jar and he says shalom and they say shalom. What they have to do? They have to turn around and walk after this person. After reaching there, what are you going to do? You are going to see the owner of that place and you are going to ask him, “Where is the guest place which you have prepared so that I can have the Passover with my disciples? and he will show you a furnished place. Praise the Lord. The right time the Lord works. Most of the time in our lives we are worried so much. The Lord is silent. The Lord is so busy with a lot of stuff. Of course, Iran again what happened? They close the hormos. So he has a lot of big stuff going on around the world where he will come to my problem when he has some time. It is not a priority before my God right now. That is what we often think. Maybe you think that the Lord has forgotten you. Maybe you think the Lord is not listening right now. But you know what? The Lord has already arranged for it. Even while everybody outside is running and uh and and you know making all this noise about what we are going to do, Jesus is staying silent because he has already worked on it. He has already turned hearts in your favor. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. When we look, when the disciples look, Jesus is not concerned. They are saying, “Where are we going to do the PES?” Praise the Lord. I’m a very I have a very laidback style. It runs my wife crazy to see that, you know, living with me because she is doing everything at the right moment. That’s how she is. But I am not like that. I’m absent minded also. So sometimes I might miss stuff. Jesus never forgets. He’s never like that. Hallelujah. He is a person whose eyes see everything. He is a person who controls everything. No hearts of the kings are like streams in the hands of the Lord and he makes them turn according to his will. Praise the Lord. So do not fret, do not worry about hallelujah getting the things done at the right time. The Lord, the Holy Spirit assures at us that at the right time we will walk into our blessing. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. And what blessing are we speaking of here? We are speaking of a victorious culmination of the ministry. Hallelujah. Now Jesus says, I eagerly desired for this. Eating Passover. Praise the Lord. It’s not just about the food. It is also food is great. Breaking bread with the saints is a very great blessing. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I’m not just speaking about the table of the Lord. I’m speaking about the food as it. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So, but beyond that, the Lord is saying the Lord wants something to do here. I want to go through four points here. eagerly disar four things. This is the last Passover meal with them. Praise the Lord. Luke 22 verse 16. Praise the Lord. Jesus is assuring them one thing. This is the last Passover we are having on this earth. Hallelujah. Praise God. Passover. Praise God. And now what is going on? Hallelujah. Literal aspect. Revelations 199. Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit announces like this. Blessed are those invited for praise the Lord the uh bridal feast of the lamb. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So Jesus is mentioning about it. But there it also has a spiritual aspect. That is the second thing. That is where the Lord instituted the Lord’s table. That is a spiritual aspect. Kingdom of God in spirit has arrived. You know, we are in the kingdom of God spiritually. We are our our our we have been placed in heavenly places. Our souls are in heavenly places with the Lord in the Lord seated with his with him in his throne. Praise the Lord. And now when we are communing, when we are doing the Lord’s table, we are remembering the passion the Lord suffered for us. Praise the Lord. And we always remember this bread represents his flesh and this cup represents his the bread references flesh and the cup represents his blood. Praise the Lord. See that is the spiritual aspect. And now verse uh the third point is Jesus wants to transfer his light onto the disciples. When Joanna was uh doing her memory verse she spoke on that. Praise the Lord. That is the memory word she said. You know Jesus wants to share his light or transfer his light into unto his disciples. John 11 9 and 10. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. So Jesus speaks about common people. People walk in the light of this world. They don’t stumble. Hallelujah. But when night comes, they don’t have light. That is what Lord says. Because they don’t have light, there is a chance of them stumbling and falling. Hallelujah. Because the Lord says they don’t have light in them. And now when we come to John 12:35 and 36, Jesus wants his disciples, there is a darkness that is trying to overtake the light. When we are in times of peace, it’s very hard for us to assume bad things is going to happen or bad things are going to happen. But there is a darkness in the spirit. Jesus Christ says is chasing you, is overtaking you. But Lord know what is the response to that or what is the antidote to that? Be children of light. When you are children of light, the light is not from the sun. Your word is a light. Hallelujah. And a lamp. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I praise God for the testimonies I’m hearing here. Hallelujah. Good or bad. Good or bad, it is the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Boasting of our faith and all when trouble comes, why are you doing this to me, Lord? Hallelujah. There is some problem with our faith. Hallelujah. There is some problem with our belief. There is some problem with our connection with the Lord. Hallelujah. When you are children of the light, when the darkness overtakes you. Hallelujah. There is darkness all over. There is a light that comes out of you. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. In revival times back in India, I’ve heard this testimony once. You know, a pastor once went to uh for a meeting in our place. He he him in shared the testimony and they went to an alien place. I mean they they were not familiar with the place and they didn’t have a light with them. It was old times. And then he said he prayed Lord we can’t even see the path you know just a small uh walking path a trail not a road or anything. And then what happens he says a light shone in front of them till they reach that house. He and his wife walked in that light. I’ve heard about testimonies like that. There is a light that will come out of you. That is a a a literal experience. But I am sharing about a spiritual experience. When there is darkness, when you look with your human eyes, you can’t see anything. But when you look with your inner eyes, you can see something. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. See? And then the last one, Jesus does something. Praise the Lord. During that meal, John 30 3-5. See, praise the Lord. See what is happening here. Jesus has this understanding and vision that the father has given everything into his hands and that he has come from God and is going back to God. He is the most exalted person at the given moment. Praise the Lord. Back home again long time back I’ve heard this story. there was this uh interview going for the IAS you know it’s a very competitive Indian administrative service and this guy goes in for the interview and there is a fan or something purposefully put there somebody switched this on and papers fly out from the table oh can you get the papers please those papers please say one of the interview and the candidate gets up from his seat goes collects the paper and put it on puts it bag on the table and the interviewer says nope you are not chosen. Why am I not chosen? Because it is not your job to go around picking papers. There is a calling bell there. You should have rung it and people will come and do that for you when you are exalted because IAS you know is like a judge. He’s like the administrative service is like a top guy. He becomes the district collector. Hallelujah. You are not going to supposed to go around doing stuff manual work but you have people and manage people that is that is what the topic is here is somebody who is exalted above heaven and earth spiritually he’s already exalted because he has already submitted and he decides one thing you remember the first thing he said my eager desire is to eat this Passover with you and he interrupts the eating Hallelujah. He wraps a towel around his face. He takes a basic and starts washing the disciples. They are still sitting. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. See no leader ever likes to share his status. No leader ever likes human leaders they don’t like where we come from in Kerala we have a parachin you know mallayalist know about pintachan means the big carpenter not about Jesus Christ that was an old uh figure back in the uh days he was a genius he was the davangey or he is the dainy of Kerala you can say like that was a scientist he was a artist he was he worked with a wood, metal, whatever you know like bezel and this guy goes to a place to build something uh marries a woman there and has a child. Few years back later he goes on his journey he goes to another place starts building something there and this child grows up without knowing his father. His father is so famous. Everybody says and this kid grows up in so much anger against his father because this father has no concern for him or his mother. This child was another genius. Another genius even better than Pache. So the child started doing stuff and the intention of every invention he makes is to bring shame upon his father the parent the big carpenter. Hallelujah. And then Vindan at a time is forced to accept his son and his genius. His son even insulted him in front of the king saying that his calculations were wrong. But they were started working together. Everything is good now. Father and son is kind of you know okay. And Perthin is working on the top on the roof. He’s doing the uh woodwork on the top. and his son is working on a wood under him on the floor and Pindachan has a big chisel in his hand the big chisel and Pindachan says later I don’t know what happened I was working with the chisel somehow it slipped from my hand you know so right now we have something called pintachan complex for leaders now we had a polit and it is true we had a a a political leader back in India, back in my place. He was a minister and stuff and later he was kind of removed from the position because of some some issues and his son was chosen in his place and his son became the minister. But when the son became minister, the next turn comes the father makes a big problem. He doesn’t want his son to be the minister. I want to be the minister. I am the minister. He doesn’t like his son. He like doesn’t like his style. So because of his force, the son was removed and the father was reinstalled for a short time. Praise the Lord. Sometimes leaders take the credit. Sometimes the pastor takes the credit. Pastors are not the heroes. Jesus Christ is the hero and his bride is the heroing. Who are pastors? Who are elders? Hallelujah. them, who supports them, who helps them grow. Praise the Lord. The quality of a pastor is not measured about with his personal charisma. The quality of a pastor, the person, the measurement of the quality of a pastor is the spiritual health of the congregation. Hallelujah. If manastor needs some applause or credit, it is based on the congregation. This congregation’s spiritual quality and growth. Praise God. I’m going to conclude here. Praise God. There is no point in promoting ourselves. Yesterday I was preaching on it. Each other, promoting each other. Praise the Lord. Uplifting each other, encouraging each other, you know, giving the space for others to grow in the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Paul is boasting in Philippians 4 verse 1. Philippians 4 verse 1. Praise the Lord. One sentence, five uh five times he’s addressing them or qualifying them. First he says, “My beloved brothers, my brothers.” Hallelujah. In the gospel, this word is used to denote Jesus brothers. Hallelujah. My brother, my sister. Hallelujah. A community of brothers and sisters. That is the church. Hallelujah. Second time he addressing them, dearly Lord, I dearly love. I dearly love. It’s agape. It’s God’s love. What is God’s love? Unconditional love. Hallelujah. Unconditional love. Unconditional love. The love that puts in the first place the better thing for the other person. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That is praise. Third he says longed for. Praise the Lord. I am yearning for my church in Philippi. I want to go there and see them. Hallelujah. I want to worship with them. Hallelujah. Do we have that yearning in our hearts when we think about the congregation or is it a burden? When they said that let’s go to the temple, my heart rejoiced. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. yearning and then my joy and finally my crown. Ask for Hallelujah. What do you eagerly desire? My Lord Jesus Christ and his church. Hallelujah. My church. Hallelujah. My disciples. Praise God. Hallelujah. The Lord and the saints. Hallelujah. The Lord and the saints. Hallelujah. Come on, tell the Lord and the saints. Hallelujah. Everybody here. Hallelujah. The foremost joy should be the Lord and the saints. Hallelujah. Don’t forget the family. Family is the part of the church. The church starts with families. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Family integrity and family strength should be focused on clearly. Your yearning should be for each other in the family. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Time is up. I wanted to say one more example. Hallelujah. I remember once when I was in Winslow, I didn’t mean to say that. I went to a McDonald’s. When I reached the counter, the lady I ordered a salad and chicken salad because Olen liked it. One of my daughters liked the salad. Okay, praise the Lord. And uh I’m at the counter and she says, “Oh, you already paid for.” I said, “No, I just came here. I I’m just ordering.” No, no, somebody paid it for you. Who paid it for me? Or the lady in that white truck paid for it? And you know immediately my curiosity so I start my motorcycle and I say thank you and I start my motorcycle I really want to chase and find she’s rushing through and she’s escaping that place she doesn’t want to show her face and so I hear the lady who is this I want to really follow that truck and you know what I came to the intersection and I thought a thunderstorm is coming my wife and my child are waiting for me at the house. My yearning at that time was to be with the child. Praise the Lord. I wanted to be with her. So I thought, well, I’m going to go to my home and whoever that is, she will come later. A few days later, one of the uh administrative assistant came. Did you enjoy your salad? Oh, it was you. Okay. You know later CJ and I invited her and her child to our house and gave her a Indian food and all that. Praise the Lord. Prayed for her. Prayed for her healing. She was going through some things. It was a innocent exchange. But what I’m saying is what is our yearning? The world is trying to pull your directions you know pull you in many many areas. Are you focused? Are we focused? What is our eager desire? The Lord. The Lord and the church. And the Lord bless us with this verse for the