Thursday Devotional
Main Text: Matthew 26:17-19
Human beings are visual creatures. Throughout the course of history, man has often used concrete resources to teach important subjects with greater effectiveness. Paintings, charts, diagrams, instruction manuals, and word pictures are a small sampling of how we continue to depend on visualization in our daily lives. Based on the contents of the Gospel record, our Lord was well aware of this human tendency. As a master teacher, Jesus would often use real world (visible) examples to instruct His disciples in spiritual (invisible) truth. Consider a significant testimony from Holy Week.
On Thursday evening, less than 24 hours prior to being crucified, Jesus gathered with His disciples to celebrate Passover (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-38). For centuries, it had been the Israelites’ custom to partake of a special meal to remember their deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 12:1-28; Deuteronomy 16:1-8). As they recalled God’s ancient rescuing mission over dinner, thousands of lambs were being slaughtered at the Jerusalem temple (Leviticus 22:17-21). In keeping with Old Testament law, the lambs were offered to God as sacrifices for the sins of Israel (Leviticus 16-17). Unfortunately, those lambs had no power to accomplish complete and final forgiveness for the people of God; they were merely pictures of the perfect sacrifice that could only be made by Jesus (Hebrews 9:22-26). It was in this context that Christ established the Lord’s Supper.
While eating of the bread and drinking of the wine, Jesus stated that both elements symbolized the sacrifice He was about to make on the cross: the bread represented Christ’s body and the wine represented Christ’s blood (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Since God originally gave the command for the Passover meal to be celebrated in Israel—and since Jesus is God—He had absolute authority to transform the significance of the Passover meal in this fashion. Upon doing so, this event powerfully demonstrated how Jesus is the fulfillment of every divine promise made to Israel (Luke 24:25-27; 2 Corinthians 1:20). This observation should only deepen our worship and adoration of the triune God as we continue to celebrate Holy Week.
Dewey is a licensed and ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention. He was raised in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is happily married to Beall, and is a proud father of Isabelle Ruth. Dewey played college baseball at Western Texas College, receiving the Associate of Arts degree in General Studies. Following his time at Western Texas College, Dewey would continue as a student-athlete at The Master’s University, earning the Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Ministries. Upon completion of his undergraduate work, Dewey went on to acquire the Master of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from The Master’s University, as well as the Master of Theology degree in Historical Theology from Campbellsville University. Dewey is currently a doctoral student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, with an emphasis in Christian Worldview and Apologetics. Over the last decade, Dewey has served local churches in a variety of ways, focusing on next generation ministries. He has experience teaching children in AWANA, serving as youth pastor, as well as leading college students and young adults. He is also passionate about personal evangelism, and has led groups in gospel outreaches in cities around the country. To strengthen his service to the church, and in conjunction with his seminary studies, Dewey has participated in several academic fellowships and cohorts. He specializes in the disciplines of apologetics, biblical theology, historical theology, and systematic theology. Dewey is also actively involved with Covenant Confessions—a ministry of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Today, Dewey serves as the Associate Pastor of Next Generation and Outreach at Metro East Baptist Church (Wichita, Kansas).
You can follow Dewey on Twitter @SlaveofChrist17
