Let's turn now to Matthew 26 and verse
33.
Jesus had just spoken to his disciples of
how he was going to the cross and
how they would all desert him in that
moment of his being captured according to the
prophecy in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7 with
Jesus quoted here in Matthew 26 31 and
on hearing this Peter quickly replied to Jesus
and said to him even though all may
fall away because of you I will never
fall away.
Here was Peter comparing himself with the other
disciples and saying I'm not like them.
It's the language of the Pharisee who looked
at the tax collector praying in the temple.
We read off in Luke 18 verse 8
onwards.
I thank you father that I'm not like
other men.
Adulterers, thieves are like this tax collector.
That's the spirit that we see here.
Well Lord even if these other ten forsake
you I will not.
I'm better than them and it was that
spirit which Jesus wanted to break because he
knew that Peter would be useless until he
was broken.
Jesus said to him truly I say to
you verse 34 this very night before a
cock crows you shall deny me three times
not just once and it's not going to
take long within the next twelve hours you're
going to deny me three times and that'll
break you Peter.
God allows us to be broken in the
areas in which we are most boastful in
the areas in which we think we are
strong.
It's our strong points that God seeks to
break otherwise we'll never be useful in his
service.
Judas Iscariot was an unbroken person.
Peter denied the Lord as we know later
on but he wept he was broken at
the end of it and that's why he
became the mighty apostle that he became.
He could have also gone the way of
Judas Iscariot.
It's brokenness that makes the difference and God
wants to break the strong points in your
life so that as a broken man you
might be able to serve him effectively and
we read here it wasn't only Peter who
said even if I die with you I
will not deny you.
We read in verse 35 Peter said to
him even if I must die with you
I will not deny you.
He said Lord you don't know what you're
talking about.
You think I'm gonna deny you three times
I'm not going to and it says in
the last part of verse 35 all the
disciples said the same thing too.
All 11 said to Jesus even if I
must die with you I will not deny
you but it was Peter alone who finally
denied.
It was Peter alone who needed that brokenness
more than the others because Peter said something
more than the others.
They all said we will not deny you
even if we have to die but Peter
said something more.
He said Lord even if these other people
fall away I will not.
He wasn't just making a statement of devotion.
He was comparing himself with others and that
was where he was in a more serious
spiritual condition than the others.
Even if all men deny you I will
not and so he needed to be broken
more than the others and then Jesus came
with them verse 36 to a place called
Gethsemane and said to his disciples sit here
while I go over there and pray and
he took with him Peter.
This person who he knew was going to
deny him three times within the next 12
hours.
He says come and pray with me.
He saw Peter's heart.
His heart was right.
His heart was good.
He was unaware of his own limitations.
He wasn't a Pharisee in the sense that
Pharisee was like the one who prayed in
the temple like I just mentioned.
He spoke that language but deep down there
was a heart that wanted the truth.
A heart that wanted to be freed from
that Phariseeism and he was freed later on
and God saw that difference.
Jesus saw that difference.
He calls Peter and he called James and
John and these were the three closest to
him with whom he could have the closest
fellowship among the eleven.
Jesus can have closer fellowship with some of
his disciples than with others and he said
to them he began to be grieved and
distressed.
He said to them my soul is deeply
grieved to the point of death.
There was an honesty about Jesus.
He was a human being at that time.
It was God manifest in the flesh and
the weaknesses and limitations of our flesh were
there very much so that he was distressed
and grieved.
God is never grieved or distressed but because
Jesus had taken upon himself the limitations of
man in his flesh he was grieved and
distressed, grieved to the point of death and
he was honest about it so that his
disciples would know that he had come in
their flesh and that he had overcome in
their flesh too.
Remain here and keep watch with me, he
said.
Pray with me.
We see something beautiful there.
Even Jesus needed fellowship in prayer.
Sometimes we are too proud to acknowledge our
need to others.
Jesus said pray with me and he went
a little beyond them and fell on his
face and prayed.
They couldn't go where he went.
He was praying concerning things which were far
too deep for them to understand but he
wanted them to be there and stand with
him in prayer behind.
He went a little beyond them because now
he was preparing to bear the sins of
the world.
He said my father if it is possible
let this cup pass for me yet not
as I will but as thou wilt.
What was that cup?
That cup could mean only one thing.
It cannot refer to the physical suffering of
the cross or physical death because Jesus was
not afraid of that.
There are disciples of Jesus who have gone
singing to the stake and singing when they
were thrown to the lions in the Roman
arenas in the first century and second century.
They were not afraid of death.
Jesus was certainly not afraid of physical death.
There was only one thing that Jesus feared
and longed to avoid and that was that
break of fellowship with his father which he
knew would come if he bore the sins
of the world.
He knew it all along but as he
approached that moment it was so terrible for
him to contemplate that he who had such
wonderful fellowship with the father for all eternity
would have to lose that fellowship for three
hours on the cross when he suffered hell
and bore the sins of the world and
the father would forsake him on the cross.
We don't understand what suffering that is because
we don't appreciate fellowship with God as much
as Jesus did.
Very often a person can have a grudge
against another brother.
His fellowship with God is broken but it
doesn't seem to bother him for days and
months and sometimes years.
Well obviously such people can't understand the suffering
that Jesus was going through here.
A person can have a dirty thought and
it doesn't disturb him.
Fellowship with his father is broken and it
doesn't disturb him.
It can go on a whole day like
that.
Well such people can never understand the depth
of suffering Jesus went through here.
He had had fellowship with the father from
all eternity and he knew that that was
the most glorious thing in the whole universe.
There was nothing to equal it.
Absolutely nothing created could equal the glory of
fellowship with his father and now he was
going to lose it.
Jesus shrank from that break of fellowship with
the father.
What does it mean to follow Jesus?
It means to appreciate and value fellowship with
the father in the same way so that
we shrink from anything that breaks it.
Shrink from sin or a break of fellowship
with another brother or a grudge or an
unforgiving attitude which breaks fellowship with the father.
This is to follow Jesus.
And he came to the disciples and found
them sleeping.
He'd been praying for one hour concerning this
one thing.
Lord father don't let my fellowship with you
be broken.
Is there some other way out of it?
And he found them sleeping and he said
you couldn't keep watch with me for one
hour.
Keep watching and praying he said that you
may not enter into temptation.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is
weak.
His flesh was weak too.
That's why he needed to pray.
He had come in our flesh and he
needed strength that would come only through prayer
and he told them you've got the same
flesh and you can have strength only if
you pray.
You can be willing.
The spirit is willing.
You can say oh I'll never deny you
but unless you pray and get strength you
will deny me.
And they slept but he didn't sleep.
He went away a second time and prayed
saying my father if this cannot pass away
unless I drink it I will be done.
He prayed a second time.
He came back and found them sleeping for
their eyes were heavy.
He left them again and went away and
prayed a third time saying the same thing
once more.
This teaches us that there's nothing wrong in
praying for the same thing with the same
words three times or thirty times.
If it comes from our heart, if it's
not a meaningless repetition, if it's not mere
words spoken without faith or without burden.
He prayed three times.
The burden was so great and it was
a long prayer meeting.
The first time itself it was one hour
and then he came to the disciples and
said to them are you still sleeping?
Take your rest.
Behold the hour is at hand and the
son of man is being betrayed into the
hands of sinners.
Arise let us be going.
The one who betrays me is at hand.
He had warned them.
Be careful.
Watch and pray.
Temptation is going to come.
But they didn't take it seriously.
Keep watching and praying he said in verse
forty one that you may not enter into
temptation, that you may not fall when temptation
comes, but that you can be strong.
He prayed and he became strong.
He prayed and he was willing to give
up that most precious thing of fellowship with
the Father in order to find a way
by which he could save us and bring
us into fellowship with the Father.
Let's turn today to Matthew 26 and verse
47.
This is in the garden of Gethsemane just
after Jesus had finished his time of prayer
and while he was still speaking to his
disciples Peter James and John who were sleeping,
waking them up, behold Judas, one of the
twelve, came up accompanied by a great multitude
with swords and clubs from the chief priests
and elders of the people.
Now he who was betraying him gave them
a sign saying, Whomever I shall kiss, he
is the one.
Seize him.
And immediately he came to Jesus and said,
Hail Rabbi, and kissed him.
It's very interesting to note that these Roman
soldiers needed somebody to identify Jesus at night.
He was not easily identifiable.
Of course in the daytime it would be
different.
They could recognize Jesus' face, but they did
not want to capture him during the daytime
because the people would raise an uproar.
They wanted to capture him at night, but
he was not easily identifiable at night because
he was just like other men.
All these pictures of Jesus with a halo
around his head are a deception.
If he had a halo around his head,
those chief priests wouldn't have needed Judas Iscariot
to identify him.
Jesus became a man just like the rest
of us, so completely identified with us that
he was unrecognizable from other men in the
darkness.
His identification was so thorough and complete.
The purity he had was not seen in
any halo around his head or in any
glow in his body, but in his heart
that was totally clean and good and pure.
And that is where the real glory lay
in him, and that is where the real
glory lies even in his disciples today, those
who follow him.
And so Judas comes to Jesus and betrays
him with a kiss.
And Jesus, his immediate reaction to this one
who is betraying him, this one to whom
he had been so good for three and
a half years, this one whom he had
not exposed for three and a half years,
this one concerning whom he had not backbitten
to the other eleven in three and a
half years, this one to whom he had
been so faithful, this one who had cheated
him of his money for so many years
and concerning which he had never complained, this
one to whom Jesus had been so good.
And when he comes to betray Jesus, what
is Jesus' spontaneous reaction?
It is friend.
And there we see the tremendous depth of
love that there was in Jesus, even for
Judas Iscariot.
Friend, do what you have come for.
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus
and seized him.
The love of God is different from human
love in this sense, that human love needs
a response to continue loving.
Human love loves those who love in return.
Human love wanes and disappears when it is
confronted with evil and hatred in return.
But God's love is unchanging.
It is not affected by the response.
It does not matter how people behave towards
God, God still continues to love them.
And we cannot understand the depths of God's
love until we see how He loves His
enemies.
It was when Adam fell in the Garden
of Eden and man became an enemy of
God that we could see the greatest manifestation
of God's love in that He sent His
Son to die for us on the cross.
While we were enemies, God reconciled us to
Himself through the death of His Son.
That is divine love.
Anything less than this is human love.
And very often when Christians speak about love,
they are only referring to human love.
When they say they love one another, what
they mean is we love those who love
us in return.
That's human.
That's found even in human clubs, non-religious
clubs.
But divine love is seen here, that it
can love when there is no love returned.
Not only that, it can love when hatred
is returned for its love.
And we can say that we see the
greatness and the depth of Jesus' love in
His attitude towards Judas Iscariot at this time,
in His attitude to an enemy who was
betraying Him after all the good that He
had done to him.
He calls him friend.
Jesus' attitude is still, You're my friend.
You're welcome to come back, even though you
betrayed me.
The pity is that Judas didn't come back
to Him.
And there's a lesson that we can learn,
for we shall also face similar experiences on
earth, people betraying us, denying us, returning our
good with evil, being ungrateful for all the
good that we've done to them and for
them.
And people can be evil to us without
any cause at all.
And having a flesh with lusts that seek
for revenge, we all know what it feels
like within, when people treat us like that.
And there we need to cleanse ourselves from
filthiness of the flesh and spirit if we
want to perfect holiness in the fear of
God and follow Jesus, so that in a
moment of trial and temptation, when someone like
that confronts us, our whole being will rise
up with this attitude that Jesus had to
call Him friend.
And then we read further.
One of those who were with Jesus, and
we know that was Peter, reached and drew
out his sword and struck the slave of
the high priest and cut off his ear.
Jesus had warned Peter to watch and pray,
verse 41, otherwise he would fall in temptation.
And now that temptation came and Peter fell.
Instead of reacting in a divine way, he
reacted in a human way.
That is to fall in temptation, that when
you're tempted, you react like a child of
Adam and not a child of God, then
you have fallen.
The children of Adam will hit back when
they're hit, and that's exactly what Peter did.
He took out his sword and struck the
slave of the high priest and cut off
his ear.
But Jesus, with the same flesh that Peter
had, had watched and prayed.
And He said to Peter, Put your sword
back into its place, for all who take
up the sword shall perish by the sword.
Or do you think that I cannot appeal
to my Father and He will at once
put at my disposal more than twelve legions
of angels?
How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that
it must happen this way?
Jesus was saying, I don't need you to
defend me.
There are seventy-two thousand angels in heaven
whom the Father has put, that will put
at my disposal.
If I just ask Him, if I even
now say, Father, save me from this, from
these people, He will send seventy-two thousand
angels to defend me and they'll wipe out
these Roman soldiers.
It's not because I'm not able to defend
myself.
It's because I don't want to defend myself,
Jesus said.
I want to fulfill the Scriptures.
It's more important for me to fulfill the
word of God than it is to escape
suffering.
Here's a little attitude that we see in
Jesus, in verses fifty-three and fifty-four.
It's more important for me to fulfill God's
word than to escape suffering.
We can examine ourselves and see if that's
our attitude to the word of God.
Is it more important for us to obey
God's word, or is it more important for
us to escape personal discomfort and suffering?
Here is the test of our discipleship, dear
friends.
When it comes to personal discomfort and personal
inconvenience and personal suffering, are we still willing
to follow God's word and obey it, whatever
the cost?
Or do we seek defense?
Do we seek to defend ourselves?
Do we pray that God will send His
angels or the equivalent of that to protect
us from people who hurt us?
In the Old Testament, God sent angels to
protect His people.
We read one angel came and wiped out
a whole army of Assyria in Hezekiah's time.
But in the New Covenant, those who follow
Jesus are not protected from these enemies.
God allows His children to be killed, because
thereby He manifests a greater glory of those
who are faithful unto death.
Jesus says, Be faithful unto death, and I'll
give you a crown of life.
We read from another scripture that Jesus healed
the ear of this man whose ear was
cut off by Peter.
And there we see Jesus' attitude.
To see the depth of His love, you
had to become His enemy.
You had to become Jesus' enemy in order
to see the depth of His love.
And these people who hated Him and wanted
to capture Him and destroy Him, they saw
the greatness of His love, that He would
heal that ear cut off in anger by
one of His disciples.
And then Jesus said to the multitudes, verse
55, Have you come out with swords and
clubs to arrest me as though I were
a robber?
Every day I used to sit in the
temple teaching, and you did not seize me.
Why have you come out with swords and
clubs as though I'm going to fight and
defend myself against you?
I'm not.
They thought He was going to fight and
His disciples would fight and defend Him against
them, but He was not interested in that.
We know that Jesus did tell the disciples
in Luke chapter 22 to take a sword
with them.
And that's where Peter misunderstood what the Lord
meant.
Jesus had told them in Luke 22, 36,
after the Lord's table, the Last Supper, He
who doesn't have a sword, let him sell
his robe and buy one.
And they said, Lord, there are two swords
with us, verse 38 of Luke 22.
And He said, That's enough.
But what were those swords for?
Not to fight and hurt others.
But if people come to hurt you to
protect yourself, but not to hurt them in
return.
Yes, we can protect ourselves if people come
to hurt us, but we're not to hurt
them in return.
That's what we see here.
We don't have to stand defenseless.
We can protect ourselves.
It's a question of what the sword is
used for.
And then Jesus said to the multitudes, I'm
not going to defend myself, neither are my
disciples.
All these things are taking place, verse 56,
that the scriptures of the prophets may be
fulfilled.
And the disciples left Him and fled.
And there too, the scripture was fulfilled.
Let's turn today to Matthew 26 and verse
57.
And those who had seized Jesus led him
away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the
scribes and the elders were gathered together.
But Peter also followed him at a distance
as far as the courtyard of the high
priest and entered in and sat down with
the officers to see the outcome.
Now the chief priest and the whole council
kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus
in order that they might put Him to
death.
Here we see the depth of evil to
which religious people can sink.
We can understand godless atheists, immoral people who
do not know God, who do not have
the scriptures, seeking to obtain false testimony to
condemn a righteous man.
But can we believe that people who hold
the Bible in their hands and who teach
from the Bible would do such a thing?
But that is exactly what we see here.
Who are the chief priests?
They were the ones who were teaching Israel
God's law.
They were the ones who had the Bible,
Genesis to Malachi, with them.
They were the ones who were the leaders
of the people and leading people to God
in prayer and praise and in sacrifice.
And the council, the Sanhedrin, were supposed to
be the elders of God's people.
And there we see the depth of evil
to which these men had sunk, that when
they knew they could not condemn Jesus any
other way, they were willing to get false
witnesses against Him in order that they might
put Him to death.
And they did not find it.
We read in verse 60, even though many
false witnesses came forward, but later on two
came forward and said, this man stated, I'm
able to destroy the temple of God and
to rebuild it in three days.
And the high priest stood up and said
to him, Do you make no answer?
What is it that these men are testifying
against you?
The high priest knew very well that these
people were all telling lies.
But here he is standing in the name
of God condemning an innocent, righteous man.
These things are written for our instruction and
our warning.
Man has not changed in these 2,000
years.
He's become worse.
It's possible even today for people to hold
the Bible, to be elders and leaders among
God's people, and to do things more unrighteous
and more shameful and more sinful than the
atheists and the worst heathen in the world
would ever do.
To seek to condemn the righteous, that is
happening even today in Christendom.
For remember, the people who wanted Jesus to
be crucified, when he came to earth, were
the leaders of the one nation on earth
that had the true scriptures, the Jews.
It was not the Roman soldiers who wanted
Jesus to be crucified.
It was the leaders who had the Bible
in their hands, who had the true religion,
but who didn't have the life, who had
the true scriptures in their hands, but who
didn't have the life.
And that's a serious and a severe warning
to all who call themselves Christians today, who
thump their Bibles and proclaim at the top
of their voices that they believe in the
Bible.
Do you realize that?
You can have the Bible in your hand
and you may not have life.
It's possible to have the Bible in your
hand and to be as evil and as
criminal as those people who crucified Jesus.
It's very easy to say, like the Pharisees
said, oh, we wouldn't have done that if
it were us.
Matthew 23, verse 30, Jesus said, Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, you say, if we
had been living in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partners with
them in shedding the blood of the prophets.
But they didn't realize that they were doing
it in their day.
They shed the blood of the one prophet
of God that was in their midst, and
yet they said we wouldn't have acted like
our fathers.
Don't be so quick to say that if
you were there, you would not have crucified
Jesus.
If you're not walking in humility and brokenness
and purity and that divine love that shows
goodness to people who are evil, then we're
walking in the footsteps of those chief priests
and scribes who crucified Jesus.
Oh, what a need there is among Christians,
among those who hold the Bible and who
preach most loudly from the Bible, to walk
in brokenness and humility and divine love.
That's what we learn from here.
The depth of evil to which people can
sink holding a Bible in their hand is
a warning, and the history of Christendom in
the last 20 centuries is another warning.
People have fought with one another in the
name of Christ.
They've gone on crusades, killing people in the
Middle Ages in the name of Christ, and
unimaginable evils in the times of the Inquisition
in the name of Christ, people being tortured
and killed in the name of Christ, and
even today in the name of Christ, perhaps
not killing, but other things equally evil, condemning,
backbiting, so many things done in the name
of Christ.
All these are the followers of the high
priests and the scribes and the Pharisees holding
a Bible in their hand and condemning the
righteous.
And the high priest stood up and said
to him, Do you make no answer?
What is it these men are testifying against
you?
Verse 63, But Jesus kept silent.
Jesus was silent, and that's a lesson for
us.
When we are accused falsely, it's no use
defending ourselves, because they'll produce other false witnesses.
Jesus kept silent.
It's no use arguing with people who have
no ear for the truth.
There are times, perhaps, when we need to
clear our name, but the Bible says two
things in Proverbs 26, verses 4 and 5.
They are put together, and it's very interesting.
It looks like a contradiction, but it isn't.
Proverbs 26, verse 4 says, Don't answer a
fool according to his folly.
The high priest here was a fool, and
Jesus would not answer him according to his
folly.
Don't answer a fool according to his folly,
lest you also be like him.
But then it says in verse 5 quite
the opposite.
Answer a fool, it says, as his folly
deserves, lest he be wise in his own
eyes.
Is that a contradiction?
No, it isn't.
There are situations where we need to be
silent, and there are other situations where we
need to speak.
And the Holy Spirit alone can give us
that discernment as to which situation is which.
We can't live by the law, but if
we are led by the Spirit, we'll know
when to speak and when to be silent.
And here was the time to be silent.
When all these people accused him and said
all types of things wrongly against him, he
just kept quiet.
And then the high priest said to him,
I adjure you by the living God, Matthew
26, verse 63, that you tell us whether
you are the Christ, the Son of God.
And now it was time to answer a
fool according to his folly, lest he be
wise in his own eyes.
And Jesus spoke and said to him, You
have said that yourself.
That's right.
Nevertheless, I tell you, hereafter I'll tell you
something more, he said.
You'll see the Son of Man sitting in
the right hand of power and coming on
the clouds of heaven.
And the high priest couldn't believe that.
They couldn't believe that this simple carpenter from
Nazareth, as they thought he was, was the
Son of God.
People can't recognize the true servants of God
because they are so simple and so unimpressive
in their appearance.
And the high priest tore his robes, signifying
disgust.
He said, He has blasphemed.
What further need do we have of witnesses?
Behold, you have heard the blasphemy yourselves.
What do you think?
He was determined to condemn him.
And when a man's determined to condemn you,
he has no ear for the truth.
He'll pick on anything you say in order
to find fault with you.
We can learn things from here.
And what was Jesus' reaction?
He said nothing more.
He spoke the truth and left it there.
He didn't argue.
He didn't defend himself.
He testified as to who he was and
the hope for the future.
And that's what we also testify to with
meekness, what we are, children of God, the
hope we have in the future.
Beyond that, we do not argue or reason.
And then the high priest asked the Sanhedrin,
What do you think he deserves?
And they are determined to kill him.
So they said he is deserving of death.
And then we read, They spat in his
face and beat him with their fists, and
others slapped him.
And what was Jesus' reaction to all this?
He just kept quiet.
He was silent.
He had power, but he would not use
it.
When it concerned the glory of God and
the temple being defiled by people making money
in the name of religion, he was fiery
and bold to make a whip and chase
them out.
But when people hurt his body and his
dignity and his reputation and anything concerning himself,
he never defended himself.
Learn from this, child of God.
Learn from this, dear friends.
What is it that should concern us and
stir us to anger?
When God's house is defiled, when people make
money or a name for themselves in the
name of Jesus Christ, that should infuriate us.
But when we are hurt ourselves, it is
time for us to keep quiet and to
bear it silently.
Then we follow Jesus.
And they said to him, Prophesy to us,
you Christ, who is the one who will
hit you.
They despise spiritual gifts.
And we are surrounded by people who despise
the gift of prophecy and the other gifts
that God gives us.
But do we prove to them that we
are right?
No.
We manifest the glory of God in silent
endurance.
And thus Jesus Christ is glorified through us,
and his glory is manifested through us to
them, and that will be their condemnation better
than if we could ever say anything to
them with our lips.
Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel, chapter twenty
-six, and verse sixty-nine.
This is referring to the time when Jesus
was being tried in the high priest's court,
and Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
And a certain servant girl came to him
and said, You too were with Jesus, the
Galilean.
But he denied it before them all, saying,
I do not know what you are talking
about.
What do we learn from this?
The truth of what we heard from Jesus
earlier in verse forty-one.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.
When Peter testified boldly to Jesus, Even if
all men deny you, I will not, he
was sincere.
He really meant it.
He really believed it with all his heart,
and he really desired to stand true to
the Lord.
The spirit was willing.
There was absolutely no lack of willingness there.
The spirit was one hundred percent willing.
But what Peter did not realize was the
truth of those other words that Jesus spoke.
The flesh is weak.
And that's the truth we don't realize either.
Our spirit is willing.
Our spirit is willing to pray, but the
flesh is weak.
Our spirit is willing to sacrifice and deny
ourselves and do many things for the Lord,
but the flesh is weak.
It's not enough that we recognize that the
spirit is willing.
We need to recognize that the flesh is
weak.
And that's why we need the Holy Spirit's
strength.
That's why we need to seek God for
power, that we might have strength to stand
true to our convictions, so that that which
the spirit is willing for will be manifested
in the flesh.
We read about Jesus in John chapter 1
that the word became flesh, John 1, 14,
and we beheld the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth in that flesh.
In that weak flesh which you and I
have, Jesus came, and what was manifested was
not human weakness for the glory of the
Father, but that was because Jesus recognized the
weakness of the flesh and sought for the
power of the Holy Spirit in human weakness.
He leaned upon His Father.
That was the secret of His life.
But the disciples did not know that.
Peter did not recognize it.
And that is why in the moment of
temptation, when a servant girl, this is not
a high priest, this is just an ordinary
servant girl, identifies him as a follower of
Jesus, and he is immediately, his immediate response
is, no, I don't know what you're talking
about.
And when he had gone out to the
gateway, another servant girl saw him and said
to those who were there, this man was
with Jesus of Nazareth.
Peter was scared for his life.
He was scared that he'd be killed.
Just like Satan said to God in Job
chapter 2, he said, skin for skin, all
that a man has will he give for
his life.
All that a man has will he give
for his life.
Job 2 verse 4.
He didn't give up his convictions unless he's
filled with the Holy Spirit.
And Peter wasn't at that stage.
So he was willing to give up his
convictions.
He was willing to give up his devotion
to Jesus and his loyalty and everything because
he was scared for his life.
And again he denied it with an oath,
this time with an oath.
He swears in the name of God, he
says, I don't know the man.
It's amazing how weak the flesh is, however
willing the spirit may be.
And a little later the bystanders came up
and said to Peter, surely you too are
one of them, for the way you talk
gives you away.
You're speaking in a similar way.
And he began to curse.
He uses stronger language now.
He begins to curse them.
Filthy language and swears.
He's so desirous to save his own life
from death.
I don't know the man, he says.
And immediately the cock crowed.
And suddenly Peter realizes that what Jesus said
was true.
He remembered the word which Jesus had said.
Before a cock crows, you'll deny me three
times.
And he went out and wept bitterly.
That was the thing that changed him.
In those few moments, Peter recognized that the
flesh was weak.
Never again would he boast like that.
He was a broken man.
Dear friends, that is what you and I
need more.
To recognize our weakness.
The weakness of our flesh.
So that all our boastfulness disappears.
So that we are broken.
Like Peter, he went out and he wept
bitterly.
Yeah, it's good for us to weep.
Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn.
They will be comforted.
And the word comfort is an old English
word from which, which contains the little word
fort in it at the end of it.
And the fort speaks of that military fort
and strength.
That was the way people defended themselves in
ancient days.
Comforted, strengthened.
Blessed are those who mourn.
They will be strengthened by the comforter, the
Holy Spirit.
And that's exactly what happened to Peter.
He didn't go the way of Judas Iscariot
because he went out and he wept bitterly.
And we see the contrast between him and
Judas Iscariot in the following verses.
When morning had come, all the chief priests
and the elders of the people took counsel
against Jesus to put him to death.
And they bound him and led him away
and delivered him up to Pilate the governor.
And then when Judas, who had betrayed him,
saw that he had been condemned, he felt
remorse.
He didn't go out and weep bitterly and
go to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive
me.
No, he felt remorse.
He just felt bad about it.
Even murderers feel bad when they see their
victim groaning out in pain in the last
moments before they die.
He felt bad.
And he returned.
He felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces
of silver to the chief priests and elders.
There was a repentance that was false.
It was not a turning from sin.
It was a feeling bad about the consequences
of sin.
When you feel bad because of the consequences
of your sin, that's not repentance.
Repentance is a turning about, a loathing of
oneself, a turning about completely from our old
way.
He even returned the thirty pieces of silver.
You can even make restitution and not repent.
You can even return money that's not yours
and still not repent.
And that's what we learned from Judas Iscariot.
His repentance was incomplete because he hadn't allowed
his will to be broken.
He even said, I have sinned.
Even those words, I have sinned, do not
constitute repentance, for they can be empty words.
He said, I've sinned by betraying innocent blood.
But they said, what's that to us?
See to that yourself.
That's none of our business.
They were not concerned.
Judas Iscariot went to the priests to confess
his sin.
There are people who do that today.
He should have gone to the Lord.
We should go to the Lord to confess
our sin, not to man, not to the
priests, not to the leaders, but to God.
Where did Peter confess his sin?
He didn't go to any priest.
He was broken before the Lord, and that's
why he was a changed man.
And there we see the beautiful contrast between
Peter and the unfortunate contrast of Judas.
Two people were in the same group for
three and a half years, listening to the
same message, messages, walking with the same Lord,
failing the Lord in the same way.
And yet, when they turned back, one turned
back to the Lord and the other turned
to the priests, and they went two different
ways.
And Judas threw the pieces of silver into
the sanctuary and departed, and he went away
and hanged himself.
What a tragic end.
It was better for that man if he
had not been born, Jesus said.
And the chief priest took the pieces of
silver and said, It is not lawful to
put them into the temple treasury, since it
is the price of blood.
And they counseled together, and with the money
bought the potter's field as a burial place
for strangers.
For this reason that field has been called
the field of blood to this day.
Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the
prophet was fulfilled, saying, They took the thirty
pieces of silver, the price of the one
whose price had been set by the sons
of Israel, and they gave them for the
potter's field, as the Lord directed me.
Everything that happened to Jesus was in fulfillment
of Scripture.
And even when other people betrayed him, that
was also in fulfillment of Scripture.
And even the things that happened to the
people who betrayed him, that was also in
fulfillment of Scripture.
And there we find something very wonderful, that
when we live in the will of God,
like Jesus, everything that happens to us works
together for our good.
God's purposes are fulfilled, whether people do good
to us or whether they accuse us falsely,
whether they deny us or betray us, whether
they turn against us or support us.
Everything, Romans 8.28 tells us, will work
together for good, if we love God, and
we are called according to His purpose.
Everything will be for the fulfillment of Scripture.
This is one of the wonderful things that
we can see through the gospel of Matthew.
Many, many times we find this little expression,
so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
We see that right in the beginning in
Matthew chapter 2, Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter
2, and we see that right at the
end of Matthew as well, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled.
And this is something very wonderful that we
can take heart to, that God has a
predetermined plan.
He had one for Jesus, and everything that
people did only fulfilled that predetermined plan, as
Peter said in Acts 2.23. And God
has a predetermined plan for your life and
mine too.
And if we humble ourselves and walk in
brokenness in the footsteps of Jesus, the Scripture
will be fulfilled, and everything will be according
to God's plan, irrespective of whether people do
good or evil to us.
Let's turn today to Matthew's gospel, chapter 27,
and verse 11.
This is speaking about the time when Jesus,
having stood before the high priest and been
falsely accused and ill-treated there, is now
sent to the governor, Pilate.
Verse 11.
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the
governor questioned him, saying, Are you the king
of the Jews?
And Jesus said to him, It is as
you say.
And while he was being accused by the
chief priests and elders, he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him, Do you not
hear how many things they testify against you?
And he did not answer him with regard
to even a single charge, so that the
governor was quite amazed.
Here we see something very wonderful about Jesus.
He refused to defend himself, even though, if
he wanted to, he could have defended himself
very ably, and confounded those chief priests before
the governor and made fools of them and
shown their accusations to be silly and foolish
and false.
But he did not defend himself, because he
had no leading from the Spirit.
We are told in 1 Peter chapter 2
that Jesus Christ suffered unjustly, leaving us an
example to follow in His steps.
In 1 Peter 2.20, it says, What
credit is there, if when you sin and
you are harshly treated, you endure that with
patience?
But when you do what is right, and
then you suffer for it, and you patiently
endure it, this finds favor with God.
Because you have been called for this purpose,
our calling as Christians is to suffer unjustly.
That is what it says here.
Since Christ also suffered for you in this
way, unjustly, leaving you an example for you
to follow in His steps, who committed no
sin, when He was unjustly accused and condemned,
He committed no sin, nor was any deceit
found in His mouth.
It was true all through His life, and
it was particularly true at that time.
And while being reviled, He did not revile
in return.
In 1 Peter 2.23, while suffering, He
uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting Himself
to Him who judges righteously.
What did Jesus do during all that time
when He was being falsely accused?
He kept entrusting Himself to the Father who
judges righteously.
In His heart, and this is not written
in Matthew 27, but we read it in
1 Peter 2.23, under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, as to what Jesus was
doing during that time when He stood before
the High Priest, when He stood before Pilate.
He kept entrusting Himself to the Father.
He said, Father, You know the truth.
You judge righteously.
I don't want to judge anyone here.
I don't want to answer any charges.
I don't want to revile in return when
these people are reviling Me.
And I will not threaten them, saying, One
day I will come and judge you.
He did not utter any threats.
And Peter says, that is an example for
us to follow.
Peter had stood in the courtyard and heard
and seen how Jesus conducted Himself.
And he saw that was an example for
him to follow.
And he writes in his letter, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that that's an
example for all of us to follow.
Pilate, the governor, had had many people stand
before him and been accused.
But he'd never seen a prisoner like this.
He'd never seen one who would not defend
himself at all.
And that is the mark of the sons
of God.
He was amazed.
But he knew that this man was guilty,
that this man was not guilty, because there
was something about the Spirit of Christ that
even a heathen person like Pilate could sense,
which religious people like Caiaphas and high priests
and others could not sense.
It shows how religious people with a Bible
in their hand can sometimes be blinder than
the heathen who don't have a Bible.
Pilate knew clearly that Jesus was innocent.
Verse 15.
At the feast the governor was accustomed to
release for the multitude any one prisoner whom
they wanted.
And they were holding at that time a
notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
When, therefore, they were gathered together, Pilate said
to them, Whom do you want me to
release for you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is
called Christ?
For he knew that they had delivered Jesus
up out of envy.
Pilate was a discerning man in this sense.
He knew that these chief priests were just
religious people, but powerless and empty.
He had no respect for their religion.
And he also recognized that Jesus was superior
to them, and they recognized it too, and
they were jealous.
And he knew that they were jealous of
him.
And he knew that they were just trying
to get rid of him because he was
superior to them morally, spiritually, in terms of
spiritual gifts and in every way.
And they were jealous of that, and they
wanted to get rid of him.
We find the same spirit, unfortunately, in Christendom
today, an envy of those who are spiritually
superior, morally superior, having more spiritual gifts, greater
abilities, and a holier life.
And when people recognize someone like that, they
are envious, and they want to somehow or
the other get him out of the way.
Even heathen people recognize that.
And while Pilate was sitting on the judgment
seat, his wife sent a message to him,
saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous
man, for last night I suffered greatly in
a dream because of him.
Heathen people having dreams proving the righteousness of
Jesus.
But the blindness of the chief priests and
the elders was so great.
It says in verse 20, But the chief
priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to
ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to
death.
And so when the governor answered and said
to them, Which of the two do you
want me to release for you?
They said, Barabbas.
The leaders had such power to sway the
multitudes.
The Bible speaks in Ephesians 4 about being
swayed by every wind of doctrine.
We are not to allow religious leaders to
sway us.
We must have our own convictions.
And if those religious leaders are wrong, like
we see here, if those people thumping their
Bible and standing up in front are wrong,
we must not allow ourselves to be deceived
by them or to be led astray by
them.
This is one of the messages that comes
through very clearly in this passage.
The multitudes were swayed by their leaders, and
so they went astray too.
And if you allow religious leaders to influence
you in a direction contrary to scripture, you'll
go astray too.
Pilate said to them, What then shall I
do with Jesus who is called Christ?
And these people, this multitude that were just
puppets in the hands of their religious leaders,
they said, Let him be crucified.
And he said, Why?
Why should he be crucified?
What evil has he done?
But he just kept on shouting, saying, Let
him be crucified.
And Pilate, he had discernment, but he didn't
have courage of his convictions.
He didn't have the courage to stand up
for what he knew was the truth.
He saw that he was accomplishing nothing but
rather that a riot was starting, and he
was more interested in preserving his own position
as governor of that district.
He didn't want a bad report to go
about him to Caesar that a riot had
started in his district.
He was more concerned about that, his own
honor, than about a righteous man, about setting
a righteous man free.
And so we see that Pilate was in
the same category as the high priests, seeking
their own.
He sought his own too.
He took water and washed his hands symbolically
in front of the multitude, saying, I am
innocent of this man's blood.
He had a conscience, but he still went
against it.
You can't cleanse your conscience by washing water,
washing your hands in water.
He said, See to that yourselves.
And all the people answered and said, In
foolishness, they said, His blood be on us
and on our children.
And the blood of Jesus was upon them.
Forty years later, the Jews were scattered across
the face of the earth in 70 A
.D., when the Roman general came and destroyed
the temple and ransacked Jerusalem.
And for nearly 1900 years, the Jews and
their children were scattered across the face of
the earth.
The blood of Jesus did come on them
and on their children.
And verse 26, Pilate, weak-minded, without any
courage of conviction, released Barabbas for them.
But Jesus, he scourged.
Imagine, he washes his hands and then orders
Jesus to be scourged.
Hypocrisy.
And he delivered Jesus over to be crucified.
And so we see that the religious leaders
were against the Lord, and the secular leaders
also were against the Lord.
Jesus said to his disciples, You shall be
hated by all nations for my name's sake.
When we follow Jesus, that's going to be
our fate too.
Religious people can turn against us, secular people
can turn against us.
But Jesus had the satisfaction that he was
doing the will of the Father, and that
should be our satisfaction too in the moment
when we are condemned by such people.
And then the soldiers of the governor took
Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole
Roman cohort around him.
They stripped him, put a scarlet robe on
him to mock him, and after weaving a
crown of thorns, imagine that they could be
so cruel.
It's not easy to take a bunch of
thorns and weave a crown with it, but
they were so evil that they wanted to
trouble him so much that they weaved a
crown of thorns and put it on his
head, and a reed in his right hand,
and they kneeled down before him, mocked him,
saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
And they also spat on him, just like
the religious people, and took the reed and
began to beat him.
And after they had mocked him, they took
his robe off and put his garments on
him and led him away to crucify him.
And there we see what Jesus went through.
We don't know all the details.
The Holy Spirit doesn't give all the details
of that scourging.
That's not important.
The important thing is he suffered, and he's
given us an example for us to follow.
How, when we are unjustly treated and condemned,
how we are to react in goodness and
in love, not defending ourselves, but committing our
cause to our Father, who judges all things
righteously.