Matthew 26:30-35 | Ted Tash

[0:00] Good morning. I brought some notes with me this week. I only have two notes. So I don't normally speak with notes, but I was at camp all week. And so my brain is not thinking no thoughts.

[0:18] ! Be a good way to put it. So brought a few notes with me. Does anybody know Home Depot's slogan? It is helping doers get more done.

[0:30] Yeah. Bethel is a church of doers. I was thinking about that this week. We are 100% a church of doers, which is a really good thing. You look around the room, you think about even you yourself. We do a lot. We are a pretty small church, which is how I like it. And we do a lot.

[0:51] That is the whole point of having the summer schedule where we get out at 1130 is so that we can go do more things. We did a week at Dayspring. We did another day and a half at Dayspring. Just my family. We just did a week at Turkey Hill.

[1:04] I know there was obviously boatloads of people from here that also did weeks at Dayspring. I think kids one or maybe it was kids two had a ton of people from Bethel at Turkey Hill. This past week, a group from Bethel cooked at Turkey Hill, including Jenna and Brad and Anna, ourselves, Lila.

[1:22] Surian was down there. Julia and Mariah rolled through for a day. And then obviously we've got half the church or more than half the church out in California now. So Bethel is a church of doers, which is a good thing.

[1:36] And so we've got a little bit of a smaller crowd today. And that is, again, a good thing. We're going to be continuing in our study of Matthew.

[1:50] And we are in Matthew chapter 26. And Dave mentioned it, but this is the prediction of Peter's denial. This is like the foretelling of Peter's denial. We're not actually going to look too much at Peter's denial.

[2:07] That is going to come in about three weeks from now. And so I'm actually going to leave a lot of Peter's denial on the table. I know about half the church is gone, so I could probably do the full thing and half the church wouldn't even know.

[2:22] And the other half that is here would have forgotten by then. Tom Grass actually has that message and he's like, just go for it. They're not going to remember. But I have more faith in you than that. I think you will remember.

[2:34] So we're going to leave that behind. You know, I think and I hope Tom goes to John where Jesus hits Peter three times with, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?

[2:45] And then obviously he says, Peter, follow me. But we'll leave that for a couple weeks from now. And we're really going to try and stick just right here in our five or six verses that we have in Matthew 26.

[3:01] So to set the table just a little bit, they have just had the Passover with the disciples. Jesus basically announces to the crew, hey, Judas is going to betray me.

[3:13] He goes out. The 11 of them are left. Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, kind of sets up the new covenant, which obviously he's getting ready to go establish on the cross.

[3:26] And then we get to our passage today. So this is like the very end of the Passover week, right before Jesus is arrested and goes to the cross.

[3:38] Next week we're going to have him praying in Gethsemane. And then while basically there is when he gets betrayed and handed over to Pilate. And so that's where we're at.

[3:51] Let's go ahead and pray and then we'll get to our passage. Father God, just thanks for the day. Thank you that we can come and read your word. Lord, we do pray for those of us that are out at the various camps still, Lord, and also just in California.

[4:05] Pray for that whole group out there with the day camp they're getting ready to do. Pray that they would be an encouragement to the freedom teams and that they'd be found useful. And Lord, just as your word goes out, we pray that it would find good soil with the hearts and lives of those out there in California.

[4:21] We just pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So Matthew chapter 26, we're going to start in verse 30. Again, this is right after the Passover and their meal together.

[4:36] And so it's Jesus with the 11 remaining disciples. Obviously, Judas is gone at this point. So it's Jesus in the 11, and it says this, When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

[4:53] Then Jesus said to them, You will all fall away because of me this night. He's saying all you guys are going to fall away this very night.

[5:06] Tonight, you're going to fall away because of me. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

[5:18] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. He uses a prophecy from Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 13, where it says, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

[5:33] He's saying, I'm getting ready to die. I'm going to go away. I, as your shepherd, your leader, am going to be gone for a little while. I'm coming back. I will go before you to Galilee.

[5:45] But for a little while, while I'm gone, while I'm struck down, you sheep will be scattered. You know, what do we know about sheep?

[5:56] We know they're not real bright. Right? We know if left to their own devices, they'll walk off a cliff, they'll get eaten by a bear, they'll eat too much of the wrong type of grass, and blow up and die.

[6:10] Not a real wise bunch. And so they need a shepherd to lead them. And Jesus says, I'm going away. I will strike the shepherd. That's me.

[6:20] And the sheep, that's you, will be scattered. He's saying, you guys need me to lead you. And I'm going away, so you're going to be scattered. Turning this situation around on us, how often do we try to go through life without being connected to the shepherd?

[6:37] Right? I mean, we do that all the time. No, Lord, I got this. I'll do this on my own power. I'll do this, you know, with my wisdom. And we don't look to the Lord for guidance. And that doesn't work.

[6:50] You know, I was born into a good family. I had good parents. They took us to good churches, helped us make good friends, took us to good camps, married a great wife, have great kids.

[7:01] And even despite all that, life is still hard, right? Some say life is harder if you're stupid. I would say that that's probably true. But it's also a lot harder if you're not connected with the good shepherd.

[7:13] Right? I mean, you look at the world of people who live apart from Christ, the unsaved. Man, they turn to all kinds of different vices, right? I mean, when you think about a life apart from Christ, drug addiction makes a lot more sense.

[7:27] Right? Something to numb the pain. Alcohol addiction. Sexual addiction. If I can just get this released, then I'll feel better. But even as a believer, we have got to stay in fellowship and under the leadership of the good shepherd.

[7:46] You know, at the end of John there, where Peter is getting instruction from the Lord, what does he say? He says, Peter, follow me.

[7:57] And Peter, he says, well, hey, what about John? And he says, don't worry about John. You follow me. The Lord wants to lead us. He wants to have that fellowship with us.

[8:09] All right, going on to verse 33 here. It says, Peter answered him, though they all fall away, these other ten, though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.

[8:20] It's kind of a ridiculous statement, right? I will never do this. I don't know if you ever make those kinds of promises, but they almost never come through.

[8:32] I will never fall away. These other guys might, but not me. And Jesus said to him, truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

[8:47] Jesus gives him the what, the when, the how of his sin. He says, this very night, before dawn, before the rooster even crows, you're going to deny me not once, not twice, three times, Peter.

[9:01] And Peter said to him, verse 35, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And all the disciples said the same. You see what Peter's doing here?

[9:13] Jesus says, you will fall away. And then Peter says, I will never fall away. Then Jesus says, you're going to deny me tonight. And Peter says, even if I must die, I will not deny you tonight.

[9:26] You will fall away. No, I won't. You will deny. No, I won't. Yes, he will. No, I won't. Yes, he will. No, I won't. If you want to feel like really smart with your kids, you can like flip it on them in one of the rounds and then they'll do the, no, I won't.

[9:41] And you're like, ah, I gotcha. But Peter's arguing with the Lord. By the way, it does feel good to outsmart a three-year-old every now and then. That does feel like a big win as a parent.

[9:55] Peter is arguing with the Lord. Jesus is saying, you are going to do this. And Peter's saying, no, I am not. He's just straight up arguing with the Lord.

[10:06] And I would say as a good recommendation, don't argue with the Lord. You're not going to win that fight. And if you do, quote unquote, win and do what you decide to do, it's not going to be what's best for you.

[10:22] Right? The Lord knows what's best for you. Be it, we do that all the time. You know, the Lord will lay it on my heart to know, hey, you need to go apologize to so-and-so. And I say, well, no, I don't want to.

[10:32] Yeah, but you should. Okay, I should, but I don't want to. You're not hearing me. I'm saying I don't want to, Lord. And I go round and round like that. And that's not good.

[10:42] We should not argue with the Lord. So this phrase here at the end is really an interesting phrase where Peter said to him, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

[10:59] And all the disciples said the same. There's two things I want to kind of look at and pull out of this last verse here.

[11:10] That's why I brought my notes. The first thing is I feel like this verse here has a really good snapshot of Christian living.

[11:23] And what I mean by that is, you know, in Colossians 2, it says that in the same way you've received Christ, so walk in him. And so how do we receive Christ? We receive Christ by grace through faith.

[11:34] And so why in our Christian walk do we need that grace? And why do we need to do it through faith? Well, it's exactly what Paul says in the book of Romans. He said, you know, there's good things I want to do and I find myself not doing them.

[11:47] There's bad things I don't want to do and I find myself keep doing those bad things. I find that there's this war, right? This battle between the flesh and the spirit that's going on within me.

[12:00] And so I keep doing these things I don't want to do and I hate that is what, you know, summarizes what Paul says. And that cycle of the war between the flesh and the spirit is going to continue until we're resurrected.

[12:15] Brad mentioned that this morning in the breaking of bread. The hope that we have as a believer is someday we will be set free, as Paul says, from this body of death. The old flesh with the old nature is going to go away when we get a new body incorruptible at the resurrection.

[12:33] And that's the hope that we have. But until then, that cycle and that war between the flesh that wants to do the bad things and the spirit which wants to do the good things is still going to go on.

[12:44] And that's exactly what this verse is saying. Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. The spirit is there. Like, Lord, I want to live for you. I don't want to deny you.

[12:57] But what do all of the disciples do? They all deny him that night. They all made this pledge. I'm not going to do it. I want to die with you. But they all end up denying the Lord.

[13:09] Now, interestingly, they also all end up eventually dying for the Lord. Right? They eventually do get martyred for the Lord. But first, they deny him here. That was the famous Dave Thomas quote, right?

[13:23] Some they hung, some they crucified, some they bowled and all. That was speaking of the disciples in their martyrdom. I guess technically John died in exile. But either way, the point is their desire is not to deny the Lord, but they all end up doing it anyway.

[13:43] But they come back around and end up being martyred. And so I think it's a really good picture of just that war between the flesh and the spirit that goes on. Like, the desire is there, but there's failure along the way.

[13:55] And so that's why we have to walk by grace through faith. The second thing I want to bring up with this verse is just the pledge itself.

[14:06] Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. John Messerly was in town, I don't know, for about a month there in July. We had dinner with him one night and we were talking about this verse.

[14:20] I wasn't sure exactly how to approach it. And he and I talked like, is that a good pledge? Like, is it good to say something to the Lord that you know you're probably not going to follow through with?

[14:35] You know, if I have to die, I will not deny you. Well, we know that when the pressure's on and the screws start getting tight, Peter caves. You know, he goes on to deny the Lord three times, just like Jesus predicted.

[14:50] But is the pledge okay? Like, is the spirit of that pledge, like, Lord, I don't want to deny you. Is that okay? Like, would it, would it have been better for him to say, Lord, I don't want to deny you, but when the going gets tough, I might.

[15:04] Like, that's not a really good, you know, pledge to have. You know? But, but we do this, and this is what John said.

[15:15] I really appreciate it. He said, we surrender some. You know, there's the, the old song, I surrender all, all to thee, my precious Savior, I surrender all.

[15:26] We don't really do that. You know? We, we surrender some when it's convenient, you know, when it's not too much of a burden for me. We'll surrender some, but that doesn't sound very good to sing, you know?

[15:41] Like, that's not, that's not like a good pledge to, to have. So, so is this a good thing, or, or is it not? You know, I'll, I'll give you a great example of, of surrendering some.

[15:53] Early in the summer, someone brought, uh, to, to my attention that Noah Agnew, down at camp, who works with the horses, uh, could, could maybe use a four-wheeler, that he's maybe looking to get a four-wheeler, not sure if he has the money for it.

[16:09] Uh, and so I didn't say anything to Noah, just have thought a lot about it. And, uh, and let me back up and say, Noah is doing a great job down there. The, the horse herd looks super healthy.

[16:22] I think they've got like 53, 55. He had eight colts this year, or whatever you call baby horse, colt, right? Foal? What is it? A foal? What's a colt? A boy is a baby horse.

[16:34] What's the baby? Anyway, he has eight, eight baby horses down there that he's got to like break this fall, which is a ton of work. Stables look good. Everything looks good. He is crushing it down there.

[16:46] But one of the things he has to do is like ride the fences and make sure that they look okay, which you don't really want to do in your family vehicle. Um, so anyway, as I'm down there this week, I, I did mention it to him.

[16:57] And I said, are we talking like a $5,000 four-wheeler? Are we talking like a hundred dollar four-wheeler that like barely runs, but you can check fences? And he's like, maybe like a $500 one that like mostly barely runs.

[17:11] And I was like, sounds good. So in my brain, I'm thinking, well, I could, I could just get that for him. But then I started thinking, well, we just bought $2,500 worth of drywall for the basement.

[17:23] I've got another $2,500 worth of doors coming up, a thousand bucks of floors, a thousand bucks of paint. He's still, the wheels start turning. They just think, well, what if I got it for him, but I left it in my name and I gave it to camp saying he could use it, but if he ever leaves camp, then I could have it because I kind of want a four-wheeler too.

[17:44] It is a hundred percent. I'll surrender some, right? Like that is a hundred percent what this is here is I'll give when it benefits me and the time is right for me.

[17:57] That's what it all comes back to is me, right? The, the song that we send, the second song we sing, all my days, you know, I'll worship you all my days.

[18:08] I don't worship God all my days, but we sing it, right? The thoughts of my heart bring a smile to your face. Not the thoughts of my heart. I can tell you that for sure, right?

[18:21] So is it okay to make those pledges and the, the, the deterministic answer is I don't know. What my spin on it is and this is opinion is I think that that is an okay thought and I think that we should pledge our best and our all to the Lord as long as that grace is there to know that it's probably not going to work out like that.

[18:45] Does that make sense? Lord, I, I want to love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength, but when I don't, I'll keep short accounts with you and you are faithful and just to forgive me of those sins.

[18:57] I'm cleansed. I don't need my whole body washed, just my feet. I think that's the approach to take and that's why we've got to walk in the same way we receive Christ, by grace, through faith.

[19:11] Obviously, it's not saying we're going to continue in sins and that grace may increase which is what Paul says, may that never be, but until we have that resurrected body and we are perfected and made incorruptible, there's going to be some shortcomings.

[19:25] There's going to be some denial, right? And so we need to have grace when those things happen, but, you know, if you look at the Lord, his response to Peter, one of the first times he sees Peter after this, again in John, he says, come have breakfast.

[19:39] He wants that fellowship. You know, when he's up on the Mount at Transfiguration and once again, Peter takes foot and inserts into mouth, the voice comes from heaven and it scares Peter to death and he's on his face, afraid.

[19:55] It says, they fell on their faces and were terrified, but Jesus came and touched them saying, rise and have no fear. You know, that's the Lord's goal is restoration and fellowship.

[20:06] Rise, have no fear, I'm here. And it says, when they lifted their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. That's the whole key is while you're down here, keep your eyes on Jesus. Follow me, he says.

[20:17] He wants that fellowship. He wants to lead us. He wants us to keep our eyes on him. All right, back in Matthew, last point I have.

[20:30] Kind of an interesting passage as a whole of Jesus foretelling Peter's denial. Obviously, God knows all our sin.

[20:45] Obviously, God knows everything. He's omniscient. But this is one of the few places, perhaps maybe the only place that I can think of, where Jesus directly predicts a sin that is going to occur.

[20:58] Obviously, he talks about Judas and Judas' betrayal. And in John, he says to Judas, like, what you do, do quickly. But he doesn't really get into, like, the what and the when and the how like he does with Peter here.

[21:13] Like, with Peter, he says, this very night before the rooster crows three times. Like, he gives the details of the sin. And so, God knows about sin.

[21:25] That's what I'm, that's what I'm trying to say is that God knows about sin. We see that pattern all through the Bible. I shared this at Dayspring, so some of you have heard it, but, you know, when Adam is in the garden and Adam and Eve have sinned, they go and they hide themselves.

[21:39] And God comes down, it says that Adam heard God walking in the cool of the day, so he hid himself. And God calls out to Adam, what does he say? He says, where are you? Right?

[21:51] He's inquisitive. Obviously, God knew where he was. Obviously, God knew why he was there. But he asked it as a question, where are you, Adam? And Adam says, well, I was afraid, so I hid.

[22:05] What are you afraid of? Well, I was naked, and I was ashamed, so I hid. Who told you you were naked? You didn't eat from that tree, did you?

[22:17] Again, taking it to kids, it's kind of like if your kid's hiding under the couch cushion, you say, oh, where did Lily go? Maybe I'll sit right here, you know? Same thing, you know where they're at. God knew that Adam had sinned, that he had eaten from the tree, even though Adam was trying to hide it.

[22:33] You go to the next page with Cain. Cain kills Abel. God comes down to Cain. Where's your brother? Am I my brother's keeper? Do I got to keep track of that guy all the time?

[22:44] Well, his blood is calling to me from the ground. Right? God knew about Cain's sin. You can go all the way through the whole Bible. You got Saul with the Amalekites where you're supposed to kill them all, and then Samuel comes and says, hey, what's those cows I hear?

[22:58] What's that sheep about? All the way through. You can't hide your sin from the Lord. David and Uriah, on and on. But right here, you have Jesus predicting Peter's sin.

[23:14] Knew it was going to happen beforehand. And what's really cool about that is, is that very night, or maybe, I don't know, if my dates are off, whatever, maybe the very next day, that exact sin gets paid for on the cross.

[23:30] Isn't that interesting to think about? Like, Jesus knows about Peter's sin, Peter commits the sin, while Jesus is on the way to being crucified for that sin.

[23:42] It's pretty interesting. But that's how it is with all of our sin, right? Your sin and mine. God knows all about it, knew all about it from the beginning of time, and still chose to love us, and still chose to go and take that sin on himself at the cross.

[24:03] If you turn me to Romans 5, this also got read in the breaking of bread. You guys were just like going through my bullet points this morning. Romans chapter 5, again, thinking about God having a knowledge of our sin.

[24:23] In verse 6, it says, while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

[24:41] That wasn't us, by the way. Romans 3 says that there are none who are good. So don't think, oh, maybe I'm kind of good, that's why God died for me. No, you are not good. Verse 8, but God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[24:58] While we were still sinners. That's when the demonstration of love occurred, is while God had full knowledge of all the things that we would ever do. Right? Right? Even then, at the right time, Christ died for us.

[25:15] And when he died, he took all of our sin on him as punishment. He paid the penalty for all of it. Every last one. All the ones in our past, and all the ones yet future.

[25:26] And if you really think about it, when Christ died on the cross, all of our sin was yet future. Right? Right? And what's beautiful about that is that his righteousness was put on our account.

[25:38] Our sin was put on his. And I share this verse all the time, but it is my favorite verse from Romans 8, chapter 1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

[25:49] There's no condemnation left. It was all paid for. One of the, like, fun translations, like the Message Bible or whatever, says that there's not a single condemning thought left towards us.

[26:03] There's nothing left to condemn. It was all put on Christ. A little later in chapter 8, it says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Doesn't matter if Peter denied Christ three times or 300 times.

[26:20] Nothing was going to separate him. from God's love. Now, listen, it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies, right? It says when Peter denies him, the rooster crows, Peter and Jesus lock eyes, it says he went out and wept bitterly.

[26:34] And that's where sin will lead you. It will lead you to weeping bitterly sometimes. But the sin was still dealt with on the cross. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

[26:45] If the musicians want to come up, we'll go ahead and close. Father God, thanks for loving us. Thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for forgiving us, Lord, despite ourselves. You came at just the right time for us and died, Lord, not when we were being good, not when we were following you, not when we were seeking after you.

[27:04] It says that we would not seek you on our own, Lord. But you came while we were still sinners, while you had full knowledge of that, and you bore the wrath on the cross for us. And we're thankful for that, Lord.

[27:16] We thank you that you took all the condemnation, all the wrath, so that there's nothing left for us. Just blessing, Lord. And we don't deserve it. We're very, very thankful for it. We just pray for the group once again out in California that you would just bless them and bless their travels and just their week out there doing ministry.

[27:35] We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.