Matthew 26:30-56 New Living Translation (NLT)
What a Supper Day to Have
a Conversation over.
We could talk about the Passover
Meal
·
And
of Jesus Blessings the bread and wine.
o
And
of just how special that would be,
o
But
I would like to begin our time together,
§ Visiting about the events which comes
after the meal.
BUT YES, we are all look
forward to that one SPECIAL DAY –
·
When
we can Drink and Eat of it in Our Father's Kingdom with Him.
o
And
Yes – Just How Special,
o
How
Glorious that will be
§ To sit down
§ And have a Glorious Lord's Supper
§ With Our Lord - Someday.
But – Have
you noticed, after their Passover meal,
·
Did you notice that they all sung a hymn?
This is when they, the now
- 12,
·
That
is the 11 disciples plus Jesus,
o
This
is Because Judas had already left,
·
But
now they all went out into the mount of Olives
§ And they sang the traditional Psalm
136. (Mat 26:30).
“30 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.”
Wouldn’t we just all love
to hear Jesus singing with His disciples.
·
The
twelve men singing Psalm 136.
·
That
is the traditional song which is sung at the close of the Passover.
"Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for
His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods for His mercy endures
forever.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords for His mercy endures
forever.
To Him who alone does great wonders, for His mercy endures
forever.
To Him by His wisdom has made the heavens"
Now that was just part
of Psalms 136, just verses 1-5.
·
But
they would have sang the entire psalm
o
Declaring
the Glorious Mercies of God.
Then we have verse 31:
31 On the way, Jesus told
them, “Tonight all of you will desert Me.
For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike [or “I
will strike”] the Shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have been
raised from the dead,
I will go ahead of you to
Galilee and meet you there.”
33 Peter declared, “Even if
everyone else deserts You, I will never desert You.”
34 Jesus replied, “I
tell you the truth, Peter
This very night,
Before the rooster crows,
you will deny three times that you even know Me.”
35 “No!” Peter
insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And
all the other disciples vowed the same.
Before I
begin, Let me ask: Do you see any SIN in verse 35?
35 “No!” Peter
insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And
all the other disciples vowed the same.
See – This is how easy it
is for us to fall into Sin.
·
We
see Peter, he is guilty of boasting in his flesh.
o
And
also, In the Sense of him declaring
o
That
his love for Jesus
§ Is Superior to the love of the other
disciples.
See - When Jesus told them
of the prophecy of Zechariah,
“Strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7).
Jesus was saying that:
·
All
of you are going to be scattered tonight because of me.
·
But
here we have Peter saying:
"Lord, “Even if everyone else deserts You, I
will never desert You.”
This is Sin. This is ‘Boasting
in the flesh’.
o “I am stronger than them. “I will never desert You.”
And Jesus simply responded,
“I tell you the truth,
Peter,
This very night, Before the
rooster crows,
you will deny three times
that you even know Me.”
But we see Peter, continuing to argue with the Lord.
Wouldn’t we all agree
that ‘ARGUING’ with the Lord
o
Has
to be a Real Foolish Thing to do?
But how
many times to we, do you, fall into the same situation as Peter?
I sure have. I have found
myself arguing with the Lord so many times.
·
And
whenever I do this, I have to say, I have always been wrong.
·
And
here - Peter is wrong as well.
o
He
is challenging the statements of Jesus.
35 “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with
you, I will never deny you!”
·
Now
we shouldn’t doubt Peter’s sincerity.
·
And
we should not doubt his devotion to Jesus.
·
Because,
I believe we would all agree
o
That
Peter was absolutely sincere when he declared this.
·
I
believe that none of us feels that he wouldn’t
o
Actually, lay down his life for Jesus.
·
“Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!”
However, we see here, a
perfect example of Our Foolishness
·
Of
taking a vow that is totally projected, supported by our own-flesh.
Matthew 5:34 New Living
Translation (NLT)
34 “But I say, do not make any vows!
Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s
throne.”
Taking a vow, taking an
oath, swearing upon a statement,
·
Jesus
says we need to be very cautious
·
And
He actually tells us to never make such an
oath,
o
And
this is because,
§ The full truth of what you swear to
§ May very likely Not be the full
truth.
To make a promise to God,
·
Is
to make a vow to God
o
And
it Is to only trust in your flesh.
Later, in verse 41, Jesus will say to Peter,
“For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
Have you ever wondered
what Jesus meant by those words?
“For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
Your Spirit is strong.
·
Check
– No problem there.
o
BUT
– Your flesh is weak!
How would you rate your flesh
- strength today?
Strong? - Just OK? - Or is
it WEAK?
Peter’s faith was not
weak.
·
Nor
was he a wimp.
·
He
was a Very BIG and Strong and Powerful Man.
·
But
does the size of a person determine
o
How
Strong their “Flesh” is?
No, of course not.
But would
it surprise you
·
If I would say that my “flesh’ is Weak?
Would it
upset you
·
If I told you that Your “Flesh” is also Weak?
See - It isn't a question
of Our Spirit.
·
It
isn't a question of Our Love.
·
It
isn't a question of Our Devotion.
·
It
isn't a question of Our Sincerity,
·
Nor
is it a question of Our Desire.
But the question is of the
“Weakness of Our Flesh”.
·
That's
where the problem lies.
o
We
Love Our Lord.
o
We
want to serve Our Lord with everything we have.
o
Our
Problem is that we are living in a body of “Flesh”, and it is
weak.
See – the first step to
recovery IS for us to understand and know.
·
And
that first step is for I, For You: To know that Our Flesh is Weak.
o
And
We should Never Trust in it.
And this is Exactly What
Peter was needing to learn.
·
And
Jesus knew it all the time.
Do you recall the event described
in Matthew 16:15-23?
This is When Jesus asked “Who do you say I am”
And Peter responded,
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Then Jesus responded with:
“You are blessed, Simon son of John”
And then Jesus began to explain What
was really going to be happen to Him
o
On
this Evening –
§ Night and During tomorrow
·
And
All the Way Through Sunday.
But after Jesus speaks,
Peter takes Him aside
§ And he Actually Begins to Rebuke
Jesus for talking in this way.
“Heaven forbid, Lord,” Peter said. “This will
never happen to you!”
Then we have Verse 23 “Jesus turned to Peter and said,
“Get away from me, Satan!
You are a dangerous trap to me.
You are seeing things merely from a human point of
view, not from God’s.”
24 Then Jesus said to his
disciples,
“If any of you wants to be my follower,
you must give up your own way,
take up your cross,
and follow me.
25 If you try to hang on to your life,
you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake,
you will save it.
Just within these few
verses,
·
We
have two examples of looking into Peter’s Life.
In One, He is celebrating
Passover with Our Lord.
·
Having
Great Times and singing song with Christ.
Then in another, We also
have when Peter
·
Speaking
from his heart, from his Soul
o
And
exclaimed Who Jesus really is.
o
And
in his answer, We see Jesus celebrating.
But just moments from
both of these,
·
We
find
o
Peter
being corrected,
§ Being scolded taught,
·
Being
rebuked from Jesus.
You know, when we look at
this evening,
·
We
seem to always settle our thoughts
o
Into
only having the vision of seeing Judas’ sin.
·
But
what about the others Sin?
o
Including
James, John and even Peter’s?
§ But what I actually think is more
importantly than any of them,
§ And that is: Our Own Sin?
·
What
about Our Own Sin?
·
Do
we take a look at it?
We need
to follow Jesus example that is before us.
Jesus Prayed. And He
Prayed. And He Prayed.
Isn’t Jesus Fully God but
He Still Prayed.
·
And
I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out that
o IF God Himself Prays
§ Maybe, Just Maybe we should also should be in Prayer.
I invite you to pray with
me.
To Pray that our sin will
be revealed to us.
To Pray that we do not
depend upon our flesh to make our decisions with.
To Pray for God to direct
us in what we should do.
And maybe even, just Pray
by just - Listening to and for Him.
Let us not be a party to
·
How
Jesus’ was left within His last moment within the Garden.
“Then all the disciples left him, and fled” and He was alone.
