Matthew 26:30-46

 

We have all heard that old expression, “Never say never.”  I’m not sure how old that expression is, but apparently Peter never heard it, or at least he certainly did not put it into practice. In this passage, Jesus predicted that the disciples would all desert him. In verse 31 he said, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me.” But in verse 35 we read how Peter – and all the others with him – denied it. Verse 35: “But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown You.’ And all the other disciples said the same.”

 

Peter’s denial reveals a number of truths about Peter to us. But because God’s Word is a mirror that reflects our true self to us, we also see ourselves in these verses, because unfortunately, it is very easy to err along the same lines as Peter. In this passage, we read that Peter fell in a number of distinct ways; distinct ways that all of us should be able to relate to.

 

First, he showed that in this instance he didn’t believe his Savior’s words. There is nothing ambiguous about what Jesus says in verse 31. He doesn’t say, “Some of you might fall away” Or, “Be careful, because you could fall away.”  Instead, Jesus is direct and to the point, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me.”

 

So you might expect Peter to say, “Lord, what can be done to prevent us from falling away? You are almighty. You are able to sustain us. Guard us, keep us, Lord. We have been with you three years now we know your power, and we’ve seen our weakness so many times before, so please, Lord, help us.”

 

That would have been a good reply.  But instead, Peter retorts, in verse 33, “Even if all fall way on account of you, I never will.”  He directly contradicted the clear spoken word of Jesus.

 

Secondly, Peter, in this particular instance, did not take to heart the teaching of God’s Word as recorded in the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah. When Jesus taught, he frequently quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures. In this case he quoted from Zechariah 13:7, “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’”

 

The Lord is hammering his point home. He is saying: This is what is going to happen, and you can be doubly sure that it will happen because it has already been prophesied in the inspired Word of God. Yet even though Jesus has backed up his prophecy and proved it by the inspired word of the prophet Zechariah, Peter says, in effect, “No, that’s not true, Lord. Maybe others will fall, but not me.” In verse 35 he says, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” 

 

We might look back and wonder, “How could Peter go against the written word of God?” But isn’t it true that many people, many professing Christians, too, look for loopholes in the Scripture?  “You know that portion of Scripture only applies to the time and culture it was written in,” they might say. “It certainly doesn’t apply to us today.”

 

Admittedly, there are a few passages that we can take culturally. For instance, I don’t believe that you ladies need to wear a hat to church. That was cultural and applied to the Corinthians. But that’s usually not where people are looking to disregard Scripture.

 

Trying to find loopholes in God’s Word is usually done along moral conduct lines, such as, “Does the seventh commandment really apply if two people love each other, even if they are of the same sex?” Or, “Is it really wrong if couples live together before marriage? After all, isn’t God the God of love?”

 

Or loopholes are sought in theological lines: “I know Scripture says Jesus arose from the dead, but it must have been in a spiritual sense, not an actual physical resurrection. We know that a true physical resurrection could not have happened.” That is what many liberal churches believe and teach.

 

You see, Peter wasn’t the only one who disregarded the clear teaching of God’s Word. We all do the same thing when we sin, because we know the specific sin we are doing is prohibited in the Word of God, yet we do it.

 

A third way that Peter fell, even long before denying his Lord to that servant girl, is that he thought highly of himself, and put himself above others. He had said, in verse 33 “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” He was saying, in effect, “Lord, these other disciples might take flight, they might turn and run like a dog with his tail between his legs – but not me, Lord. I’m tougher than the other disciples.”

 

How does the proverb put it?  Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Or, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!”

 

 

Jesus did not reply to Peter’s boast. He knew that later the only reply he would need would be a searching look, a locking of the eyes after the rooster had crowed. But now we read in verse 36, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’”

 

This passage of Scripture is one of those passages that are “holy ground.” It is a special passage as it reveals the great sorrow and torment of our Savior in the Garden. But even though verse 36 starts a new section, with its focus on the agonized prayers of Jesus and the disciples' total inability to encourage him, it is rooted back in that quote from Zechariah 13:7, about the shepherd being struck. 

 

The Shepherd wouldn’t be struck by the kiss of betrayal, or by the many ruthless trials, or by the strength of the Roman army, or by the spikes that nailed him to the cross. No, all along, it was the Father who struck his own Son. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.”

 

As Octavious Winslow put it: “Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for the money. Not Pilate for fear, not the Jews for envy. But the Father for love.” It was the Father who struck the Son. And it was that heavy spike of great sorrow that pierced the heart of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the full weight of the realization that he would bear his Father’s wrath at our sin was impressed upon Jesus. When he said to his disciples, in verse 38, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me”, he was not speaking about being overwhelmed by physical death. He was speaking about spiritual death. He was speaking about being forsaken by his Father as he bore the curse of your sins and mine. He was speaking about being struck by his own Father, about the reality of Isaiah 53:10: “...It was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life a guilt offering...”

 

 

Although Christ had offered from all eternity to be the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, the actual hour of betrayal was coming upon him. He, although truly God, is yet truly human. And in his humanity, in his time of great trial and agony, Jesus sets the example in prayer. 

 

First, his prayer teaches us the need for sincerity and persistence in prayer. In verse 39 we read, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.'”

 

The cup is the cup of God’s righteous and proper wrath against your sin and mine. We hear a description of the cup in a verse like Psalm 75:8, “In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; He pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs.” Numerous passages throughout Scripture also describe the wrath of God as a cup of wrath. (cf. Jeremiah 25:15-16; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Lamentations 4:21; Ezekiel 23:28-34; Habakkuk 2:16; Revelation 14:9-10 and 16:19)

 

But because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath, we who have saving faith in him drink the cup of God’s blessing. And that cup overflows. No matter what hardship or trial, in the whole scope of life, every true believer can echo the exclamation of the Psalmist, “My cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5). And it is all because Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against our sin, that we drink the cup of God’s blessing.

 

Secondly, His prayer teaches us to pray according to God’s will. Verse 39 continues the prayer of Jesus, “Yet, not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus practiced what he preached. He had taught his disciples how to pray by saying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and in his prayer he submitted his will to his Father’s will. The clear teaching of Scripture is that we are to do the same. 

 

Third, his prayer teaches us that through prayer we are strengthened, even if our situation is not changed.  The Father’s will was still the same. It would not change because of the impassioned pleas even of Christ, the eternal Son. But strength was given. In the parallel account, Luke writes: “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”  (Luke 22:41-43) 

 

After being strengthened, Jesus went resolutely forward. Consider Matthew 26:45, 46: “Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

 

After his prayer he was no longer overwhelmed with sorrow as he had been in verse 38. He had been strengthened by the power of prayer. His prayer didn’t change his Father’s will, but his prayer changed and strengthened Jesus for the task that was before him from all eternity. The same is true for us. In response to our prayers, even if God doesn’t change our circumstance, he will give the strength we need so that we can bear the circumstance, the trial or hardship we face.

 

And that’s one reason why we need sincerity and persistence in prayer. Our prayers will not change the eternal will of God, but through our prayers he will strengthen us so that we can better understand his will and do his will, in his strength, not ours.

 

If the eternal Son of God realized the importance of prayer, shouldn’t we?  The author of Hebrews writes, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Hebrews 5:7)

 

Jesus prayed knowing his Father would hear him and strengthen him, even though the cup of suffering and wrath would not be removed. No wonder Jesus said to his disciples – and says to us – “Watch and pray.”

 

A second application: The isolation in Gethsemane points to the reality that only Jesus, without the help of any other, could bear the wrath of God against our sin. As Peter declared in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

 

Because Jesus died a spiritual death, that is, he suffered separation from God the Father for us and then rose again for our justification, we need not fear death. Jesus experienced death in all its forms – physical, spiritual and eternal. Eternal death is the equivalent of hell, separation from the love of God eternally. Jesus bore all the suffering of hell for us through the crucifixion. And because Jesus experienced the totality of what it means to die, we need not fear death.

 

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Although he was greatly blessed in his ministry, his personal life knew great sorrow. His first wife died from cancer when she was in her thirties, leaving three children under the age of twelve. Dr. Barnhouse decided to preach the funeral service for his wife, but it was hard for him to comfort his children. At their young ages how could he convey to them the victory that believers have, even in death, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus?

 

As he was driving to the funeral, a large truck passed them. It was a sunny day and suddenly they found themselves in the shadow of this large truck. It had come up on them so suddenly that it startled his daughter. Barnhouse said to his children, “Which would you rather be run over by, the truck? Or its shadow?”  Naturally, they said that they would rather be run over by the shadow than the truck.

 

Barnhouse then said, “Your mother was run over by the shadow of death. But she had no fear of evil, because Jesus experienced death in all its forms, and conquered death through the cross and his resurrection from the dead.”

 

Since Jesus did his Father’s will and died for us, taking upon himself the curse of our sin, we do not need to fear physical death. It becomes for the believer the entranceway into glory. And we can say with the Psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

 

A third application: This passage reminds us that Jesus came for weak sinners. Peter’s denials, along with the sleepiness and desertion of all the disciples (56) gives us a reflection of ourselves. But our Lord understands our weakness. He understands our frailty. He understands everything about us. The second time Jesus returned and found his disciples sleeping, he said, “The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” And the third time Jesus came back and found his disciples sleeping, there in verse 43, he just let them sleep. 

 

In a sense, his compassion for the sleeping disciples is a New Testament counterpart to Psalm 103:13-14, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

 

The evil one will always tell us that we are too sinful to be accepted by the Lord. He will tell you that you are too apathetic and slothful, just like those disciples.  “The Lord will never accept you,” he whispers.  “The Lord would never send his Son to die for someone like you,” he intones. But this passage, along with so many others, reminds us Jesus came for weak sinners just like you and just like me.

 

It was Jesus Himself who said:

 

   “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matt. 9:12)

 

   “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

 

   “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:13; Luke 5:32)

 

As we close this passage and see the betrayer coming, may we learn from Peter’s sinful mistakes and humble ourselves before God and his Word, being faithful and persistent as we pray for God’s will in our lives.

 

And may we express by our lives and our prayers our deep, eternal gratitude that Jesus drank the cup of his Father’s wrath that we who have saving faith in him may drink the cup of his overflowing blessings – forever!  Amen.

 

 

bulletin outline:

 

 

                                    Matthew 26:30-46

 

I.  Jesus predicted that the disciples would all desert Him (31-34).

     Peter’s denials (33, 35) showed that in this instance:

      1) He didn’t believe his Savior’s words (31)

 

 

 

      2) He didn’t take to heart the teaching of God’s Word (31b)

 

 

 

      3) He thought highly of himself, putting himself above others (33)

 

 

 

II. The One who would strike the Shepherd is God the Father (31b).

     The agony of the Son (38) was not over His impending physical

     death, but spiritual death as he would be forsaken by His Father

     (Matthew 27:46)

 

 

 

III. Applications:

      1) Jesus sets the example in prayer (39, 42, 44)

 

 

 

      2) The isolation in Gethsemane points to the reality that only

           Jesus, without the help of any other, could bear the wrath

           of God against our sin (Acts 4:12)

 

 

 

     3) Jesus came for weak sinners (Matthew 9:12, 13). Peter’s

          denials, along with the sleepiness and desertion of all the

          disciples (56), gives us a reflection of ourselves and  

          demonstrates God’s grace