Lesson 46✝️- The Last Supper-Part 1
1. Everywhere Jesus traveled, He was followed by crowds of people. Some wanted Him to feed them or to heal their diseases. Others wanted Him to give them political freedom from the Romans. Not very many of them thought about their spiritual needs. Only a few realized that their greatest need was for Salvation from sin, Satan, and death. What do you want from Jesus? Think about that during this lesson.
2. Jesus and His disciples were traveling to Jerusalem. On the way, they came to the village of Bethany, where His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. Not long before this, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus sent two of His disciples ahead into the village. He told them they would find a young donkey tied up there, and they were to untie it and bring it back to Him. The disciples found the donkey and untied it. Some people asked them what they were doing. The disciples said, as Jesus had told them, that the Lord needed it, so the people let them take the donkey. (Mk. 11:1-6)
3. Jesus sat on the young donkey and rode into Jerusalem. (Mk. 11:7-10) Many people came and shouted praises to Him as He rode. They praised Him as the One Who came in the name of the Lord to bring back the kingdom of David. They covered the road with garments and with tree branches. This was foretold by the prophet Zechariah 500 years before it happened.(Zec. 9:9, Mt. 21:4-5)
4. Unfortunately, most of the cheering crowd did not believe that Jesus would save them from sin, from Satan’s power, and from God’s punishment. They just wanted Jesus to give them freedom from the cruel power of the Romans.
5. The Jewish leaders were afraid that the Romans would be angry about people following Jesus as a new king. They thought the Romans might bring an army to destroy Israel. The Jewish leaders lived a comfortable life in cooperation with the Romans, and they didn’t want to lose their position. They began to make plans to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people, who had seen Him do many miracles, and considered Him to be a great prophet of God. (Mk. 14:1-2)
6. The Jewish leaders tried to find a way to catch Jesus when He was away from the crowds. One of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, came to them and offered to help them find and capture Jesus if they would give him money. They happily promised to pay him if he would betray Jesus. (Mk. 14:10-11)
