Teaching resource for Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson for May 24

Ideas and questions to help group members and leaders study and teach Matthew 26:17–30

First, use this icebreaker idea:

1. Divide the group into pairs.
2. Ask this question: In this lesson Judas betrays Jesus. Have you ever been betrayed before? How did it make you feel and how did you respond?
3. Allow the pairs three minutes and then call the group back together.

Matthew 26:17–25

1. Is an understanding of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, including the Passover meal, essential for understanding why Jesus initiated the Lord’s Supper at that time? This understanding is absolutely crucial. The whole feast commemorated the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Passover meal in particular was a reminder of the night when the death angel took the lives of the first born in Egypt as the last of the ten plagues. The death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites who applied the blood of a lamb over their doors.
2. Do we know if Jesus and the disciples had observed Passover together in the three years they had been together? We cannot be sure, but it is very likely they had done so.
3. Which city was Jesus referring to in 26:18? The Passover had to be observed in Jerusalem.
4. Do we know which of the disciples went to make preparation? Luke 22:8 tells us it was Peter and John.
5. Do we know which evening they met for the meal? Why is that significant? The horrific events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion were about to begin.
6. What was the response of the disciples when Jesus told them that one of them would betray him? They were deeply distressed, and each one asked, “Surely not I, Lord?”
7. What did Jesus say was the sign as to who would betray him? The one who dipped his hand with him in the bowl.
8. What was Jesus referring to when he said that the Son of Man “will go as it is written about him?” For the Jews, “will go” was a euphuism for death. See Psalm 39:13 as one example of this use.
9. What additional light does Dr. Luke’s account of the Passover meal add in Luke 22:22? That the betrayal was determined beforehand or “marked out” as a boundary line?
10. Was the betrayal a mix of divine arrangement and human responsibility? Jesus’ betrayal was prophesied beforehand, but Judas was responsible for his decision, and Jesus pronounced a woe upon him for his decision.
11. What did Peter mention about this in his sermon in Acts 2:23? He said that Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. See also what Peter said as he was addressing the disciples in the upper room after Jesus ascended in Acts 1:20. He said that David had foretold the betrayal of Judas. See also John 13:18 and Psalm 41:9.
12. Does God’s foreknowledge constitute predestination? Just because God knows something is going to happen does not mean he predestined it to happen.

Matthew 26:26–30

1. What did Jesus do while they were eating the Passover meal? He took the bread and broke it, gave it to his disciples to eat saying it was his body.
2. Did Jesus really mean it was his body? Not at all, but it was a symbol or object lesson to be a reminder of how his body would be broken on the cross.
3. Are there those that teach that the bread eaten during the Lord’s Supper literally turns into the flesh of Jesus? The Roman Catholic Church teaches transubstantiation. This means that the bread and the juice of the vine literally turn into flesh and blood of Jesus. We are grateful to Martin Luther who saw how far the Roman Catholics had strayed from biblical teachings and began the Reformation. However, he fell short in one area concerning the Lord’s Supper. While he did believe in transubstantiation, he did believe in consubstantiation, which means that Christ’s presence is mysteriously communed as we eat the bread and drink the juice. It is from this the word communion came into being. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act that reminds us of the death and second coming of Jesus as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:26.
4. What was the purpose of giving them the cup to drink the fruit of the vine? To remind them of his blood he would shed as he died on the cross.
5. Do we need things to help us to remember? We tend to forget even important things if we do not have reminders. What is a key word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 11:24–25 that begins with the letter R? Remembrance
6. When Jesus said that his blood was poured out for the many, was he teaching limited atonement, which means that he only died for certain people.    Ellicot says this: “As in Matthew 20:28, our Lord used the indefinite “for many”, as equivalent to the universal “for all.” In I Timothy 2:6, Paul says he gave his life as a ransom for all.  
7. Do you think the disciples really comprehended what Jesus was referring to in 26:29? We really have no way of knowing. What day was he referring to? The next time they feasted again would be in heaven.
8. Do we know what hymn they sang? The Hallel (Psalms 115–118).
9. What is the word picture we get from the Passover and the death of Jesus? To avoid the wrath of God against sin, we must be under the blood (of Jesus). “In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
   
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   EDITOR’S NOTE — Chip Warren has led groups of all ages, as well as trained group leaders, through the local church for over forty years. He’s a graduate of Southwestern Seminary and lives in Albertville, Alabama. Warren provides teaching resources such as these questions related to specific passages of Scripture at chipwarren.org.