The Sacrifice of the King Pt 2

And read verse 9 with me Save, O Lord May the King answer us In the day we call And Father, we do now know that you save All who call upon you And Lord, we know that you save Because of the very thing that we're studying Right now in the book of Matthew Lord, you save because you are our redeemer And so, Lord, as we spend time In your word this morning I just ask that you would speak to us By the power of your Holy Spirit Lord, move in our hearts as you see fit Lord, bring in conviction Comfort and instruction In the way that only you can And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name Amen You may be seated And if you would Open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew Chapter 26 Matthew chapter 26 We come this morning to part two of our series

The Sacrifice of the King And this morning we're looking at The Last Supper The Last Supper As we were together last week We began looking at The preparation for the Last Supper The preparation of the sacrifice And in the preparation of the sacrifice Jesus had Gone to the house of Simon the leper for dinner And as he went to the house of Simon the leper for dinner Of course, Mary As it tells us in John's gospel Was there, and she took that costly Vial of perfume And she broke it open And anointed his head with it And of course the disciples took issue with this As a lot of times Others do When we show an extravagance Aspect of worship to the Lord But Jesus said, hey listen She's done a really good thing here And this will be remembered everywhere

That the gospel is preached And so we have seen this preparation And now it's time for the Passover With his disciples And so as we pick up In verse 17 There's two things that we'll look at We'll look at the Passover And then we're going to look at the warning That Jesus will give to his disciples Verse 17 of chapter 26 It says, Now on the first day of unleavened bread The disciples came to Jesus and asked Where do you want us to prepare For you to eat the Passover? And he said, go into the city To a certain man and say to him The teacher says, my time is near I am to keep the Passover at your house With my disciples And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them And they prepared the Passover Now what we see first of all

Is the preparation for the meal Jesus said, I am to keep the Passover at your house Jesus' disciples, it tells us Ask him where he wants them to prepare the Passover But it starts off with a statement A time stamp As Matthew's been so good at doing It was the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread Now if you don't know very much about Levitical law Or the priest Or of the sacrifices and feasts of the Old Testament There were two feasts that fell right together One was the Passover feast Then the feast of unleavened bread Both of them commemorate The time when the children of Israel Left the nation of Egypt The Passover was the time When the children of Israel Sacrificed the lamb Because the death angel was coming To the nation of Egypt

It was the very last plague That would come on the nation of Egypt To set the people free And God told them You need to understand You're subject to this plague as well He told the children of Israel that The only way that you can be saved From the angel of death Is if you take a lamb A lamb that is spotless A lamb that you have examined And proven to be spotless And you sacrifice that lamb And then you take some of the blood of the lamb And you apply it to the doorposts of your home The angel will see the blood And will pass over your home But there was another thing That was supposed to take place Because at the same time They needed to prepare to move quickly And so they were told Remove all leaven from your home Remove every aspect of leaven

Leaven of course is what is in the bread That causes it to rise Yeast And he says All leaven must be removed from your home All leaven must be removed from your home All leaven must be removed from your home Because you don't have time for the bread to rise You need to be able to flee quickly So that's part of what they did And so the first day of the feast was Passover The next week was the day of unleavened bread Where they got rid of all of the leaven in their homes And they ate only unleavened bread during that time It was this feast That often times is simply referred to Just as unleavened bread That's being referred to here And so it's that first day of the feast Of unleavened bread And so his disciples Come to him They say

Where do you want us to prepare the Passover? Once you notice how Jesus responds He says Go into the city To a certain man And say to him The teacher says My time is near I'm to keep the Passover at your house With my disciples That's the most ambiguous instructions I've ever seen in my life Go find a guy A certain guy And then once you tell him The teacher says My time's near I need to keep the Passover at your house I have to prepare the Passover at your house I have questions If I'm a disciple I'm like Can we get some definitive marks Of who the guy is Remember when he sent him To go get the donkey For the riding in On the Palm Sunday He said You're going to find a guy With a donkey tied up Tell him the teacher needs him

They're getting used to this from Jesus This unnamed guy Why is he unnamed? I want to know who this guy is I want to know how they knew To find this guy Listen, Jesus knew people, right? And he knew that there was somebody Probably one of the other times That they were in Jerusalem He had set this up He'd found someone Someone that was important to him Somebody that he knew he could trust To say Hey listen, Passover's coming Can we celebrate it in your upper room? Do you have a place where me and my boys Can do this?

Probably said yes, absolutely What's mine is yours So Jesus said Jesus tells him I want you to go in I want you to find this certain man Tell him that the teacher says My time is near I need to celebrate the Passover at your house You know, there's a beautiful truth about this And that's that as much as we want to know The name of this guy On this side of eternity We never will Maybe on the other side of eternity We never will And you know what? That's okay Because it's a really good message It's a lot of us that serve in anonymity There's a lot of people that serve That nobody has any idea of what they do They have no idea the amount of time That they spend in intercessory prayer They have no idea the number of times

That they've stopped and helped someone Who is in need And we're completely content to be known as A certain guy But God always takes note And while the rest of the world May never know their names God does And he takes note of those things And so if you're a Christian If it's your day to serve in anonymity If it's your period of time in your life Where you're serving under the radar And nobody knows about it Just know God has a very special place For those who are A certain unnamed servant Who is willing to serve In the unknown ways He says, you're going to find this guy And you're going to tell him We need to celebrate the Passover there And so the disciples did Just as Jesus had directed And they prepared the Passover

I want you to take note of something The thing I want you to take note of is this In each of these three verses There's one phrase that's repeated three times The Passover The Passover The Passover Do you notice how redundant Matthew is In those verses to tell us How often the Passover was important Why does he take that time to do that? Why does he just keep repeating the same phrase? He could have used an understood article there To let us know what he was talking about But he doesn't He repeats the same phrase Over and over again Why does he do that? Because he's writing to the Jewish people That's the mindset he's writing to So as he is describing what's going on here He lets them know That what was going on here was The Passover Why?

Because that feast that the children of Israel Celebrated all those years ago In the nation of Egypt Set them free from physical slavery So that they could become his own special people That's what we're told in the book of Exodus He set them free unto himself But now what's going on Is that Jesus is going to be the perfect Passover lamb Who will not just set them free from physical slavery But will set them free from the slavery to sin An eternal slavery So that we could be his own special people He is our Passover lamb Everything in the Old Testament Always looked back to God Setting them free from the nation of Egypt Setting them free from the slavery of the nation of Egypt But everything in the New Testament Always looks back to being set free

From the power of sin From the power of sin To being set free from the penalty of sin And ultimately being set free from the presence of sin That's what everything in the New Testament looks to Everything in the Old Testament told us this was coming Everything in the New Testament says it's here And he is our perfect Passover lamb He is the one who sets us free from sin And Matthew wants to make sure And point that out to all of his Jewish readers And so we go on from there It says Now when evening came Jesus was reclining at the table With the twelve disciples As they were eating he said Truly I say to you that one of you Will betray me Being deeply grieved They each began to say to him Surely not I Lord And he answered

He who dipped his hand with me in the bowl Is the one who will betray me The son of man is to go Just as I am As it is written of him But woe to that man By whom the son of man is betrayed It would have been good for that man If he had not been born And Judas Who was betraying him said Surely it's not I Rabbi Jesus said to him You have said it yourself This next little section I refer to as Simply the betrayer Because as Jesus is In the upper room with his disciples Most of the people who are in the upper room with him And in the middle of the room In the middle of the room He has said to them If you have any other questions You may ask me I will answer them As a matter of fact A good number of things Has taken place by this point in time

From the other gospel accounts We know that by this point in time Jesus has washed the disciples feet Jesus has talked to them About the things that are coming Much has taken place in the meal But you see now it's time for business To get real And in order for business to get real It's time for Judas to do What he's going to do And so Jesus begins to speak To the twelve disciples Reclining at the table there He says to them and says, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. Oftentimes over-familiarity can sometimes make a story hard for us to catch the true thrust of what's being said. So we've read this story so many times that we're not surprised that Jesus, while sitting at this last meal, while sitting at this last supper, stopped and said,

one of you guys is going to betray me. But this would have been shocking to the ears of his disciples. And quite frankly, shocking to any of us if we were all sitting in a room with someone that we cared about so much, who looked at us all and said, one of you is going to turn me over. One of you will be the betrayer. Now the first thing that I think is interesting is how they respond.

It says, being deeply grieved, they each began to say to him, surely not I, Lord. I love this about the disciples because they're so grieved at the thought that any one of them could have done this. They're all shocked that any one of them could have done this. They're all in deep grief knowing that one of them would do this to somebody that they love so much.

And they simply begin to look at Jesus and say, surely it's not me. Am I the one that's going to do this to you? Now there's a lot of things that we can criticize the disciples for, and I'll get to that later. As we go into our study a little bit more when he begins to warn his disciples. This is one of the things I think that we can praise the disciples for.

Do you notice what they didn't do? Because that almost sticks out to me as much as anything. What they did not do is point fingers at each other and say, I bet it's you, right? What have we seen from the disciples so far? Lord, we're having a little debate here. Who among us do you think is going to be the greatest? I think it's me. But you tell us. Lord, when you go into your kingdom, can I sit on your right and he sit on your left?

Can we just go and throw that down now? Because I think that's an important distinction to be made. That we're probably the two closest to you. You know, those have been the things that are going on with the disciples up to this point in time. But when Jesus makes this statement, none of them looks at anyone else and says, it's probably you, isn't it? I've always not trusted you.

There's something that's off about you, right? Thaddeus, I've never seen you do anything. It's probably you, right? Like some of the no-name disciples, it's probably you. I've never seen you do anything. I think that it's pretty neat that none of them looked at each other and blamed each other. You know why I think that that's neat? Something that we should pay attention to because that's often not true of the church today.

Often what's true of the church today is we love to point fingers at each other. We love to get upset with everybody else around us. And when we hear about something, we're like, I bet it was you. I bet you're the one that's capable of something like that. One of the things that can be so dangerous in the church today is our judgmental feelings that we can often feel towards the people that are around us.

I've said it before and I've been reminded this week that we need to hear it again. That's that we as the church are not intended to be a sanctuary for saints. We as the church are intended to be a hospital for sinners because there's not a single person. in this room right now that is not so desperately in need of the grace of God that we could look at the person next to us and say, I can't believe you'd be capable of that. Because each of us,

as we sit here today, are simply sinners that have been saved by grace. All we can do is reach out to the person that comes in next to us, no matter what their past is, no matter what they've done, no matter how they feel, no matter what they've been doing. All we can do is reach out with the same grace that God has reached out to with us and not point fingers, but instead offer grace. So they begin looking around and saying, surely, surely it's not me. But you know, there's

a second thing that they don't do that I think is kind of interesting. None of them, none of them suspected Judas. None of them had any thought in their head that Judas would have been the one. As a matter of fact, I think that they were probably as shocked that it was Judas as they were shocked that it was Judas. As anything. I think that they probably lived in shock for a while after this whole thing took

place that it was Judas and went, I never would have seen that coming. I never would have paid attention to that. And so as Jesus is telling them this and they're going through this grief, Jesus makes a very interesting statement. It says in verse 23, and he answered, he who dipped his hand with me in the bowl is the one who will betray me. Now, before you think Judas must have had his hand in the bowl at that point in time,

he had to have been like, what? What are you looking at me? They all dipped their hand in the bowl. We need to understand that because they were all friends gathered there together. You see, that statement indicates to us that this was one of his close friends. In Psalm 41 verse nine, it says this, even my close friend in which I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Jesus doesn't make this as a statement so that they could

single out the one guy who was going to betray him. Jesus makes this as a statement so that they would understand the one that would betray him is one that he considered a really good friend, is one that he considered to be really close to him and one that he even actually loved. I think that's important for us to pay attention to because in the world that we live in today, I would venture to say that one, if not many of you have had somebody that you really cared about turn on you you've had somebody that you cared about betray you and hurt you deeper than you even knew was possible may i say to you jesus understands exactly what that's like jesus understands exactly what it's like to have somebody that you thought you could trust

absolutely destroy that trust brothers and sisters there's nothing that we go through in our lives that jesus hasn't also been through and can't say i know exactly where you're coming from i know exactly what's going on with you because you see he was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin and so as jesus looked and said it's going to be the one who dips his hand in the bowl with me makes another interesting statement he says in verse 24 the son of man is to go just as it is written of him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been good for that man if he had not been born i've referred to this verse as one last call for repentance

now i don't know how you see this scene going down but remember all these guys are gathered around this table at this point in time and they're all sort of lounged back as a matter of fact in john it tells us that john sort of laid his head back on jesus and was like who is it right because they're all trying to figure this out as they're sitting here sort of relaxed around this table jesus is looking and he says what's going to happen is going to happen essentially the die has been cast the son of man is going to go as it has been determined but this is where i think he gets a little interesting i think and this is just me this is me because i've watched a lot of movies in my life i think he sort of looked over at judas and said

but woe to that man by whom he betrays it would be better for him if he had not been born why i think that jesus made eye contact with judas here is the same reason that a lot of other commentators feel somewhat the same way and that's that i think this was jesus giving judas one last chance for repentance i think he was giving him one last chance to not have to be this guy to not have to do what he was going to do, because you see, I think Jesus really, truly loved Judas. You know why I think that he really, truly loved Judas? Because Jesus could have washed the disciples' feet at any point in time that he wanted to, but he chose to do it when Judas was still there. Why? Because

I think he loved him. I think it hurt the heart of Jesus to see that Judas would become the man that he had become, and I think he was offering him that one last chance for repentance. You know why? Because it's in God's heart. God's natural bent is forgiveness. God's natural bent is to give us one more chance. Just look at the Old Testament. How long was God willing to wait for the nation

of Israel before he finally brought judgment on them? Hundreds of years. Because it's his bent to forgive. It's his bent to give us another chance. It's his natural bent to not pour out judgment. It's his natural bent to not pour out judgment. It's his natural bent to not pour out judgment on us. As a matter of fact, we're told in the book of Ezekiel that judgment is his strange

work. It's the last thing that he wants to do, that he longs to pour out forgiveness. And all he needs is that one little bit of repentance to say, okay, good enough, here, because of the great love that he has for us. He's always giving us that one last chance. And I don't know about you, but I've seen this happen in my own life, where I'm about to make a knucklehead decision,

and he's like, let's just take one last chance to see if you're willing to not be an idiot, see if you're willing to not do that thing. He was giving him that one last call for repentance. Unfortunately, like often happens, Judas didn't take the chance. He didn't take the opportunity. As a matter of fact, Judas gets somewhat snarky with him. It says in verse 25,

Do you notice how differently he approached Jesus this time? Look at what the other disciples said. Look up in verse 22. Being deeply grieved, they each one began saying to him, Surely not I, Lord. But notice how Judas responds. Surely it is not I, Rabbi. Why? Because his relationship with Jesus had totally changed. Jesus was no longer the Lord of his life. He was just another good

teacher. We hear that a lot, don't we? Well, Jesus was just a really good teacher. Yep, for you, that's all he really was. But that's not who he really is. Because for the rest of the disciples, he was the Lord of their life. Now listen, Jesus is going to tell these disciples in just a few minutes about a really big mistake that they're going to make. But the difference between Judas

and the other disciples is that the other disciples in the midst of their mistake still had Jesus as the Lord of their life. Judas, in the midst of his big mistake, had chosen a different way, had chosen Jesus to be something completely different in his life. And so we go on from there, and Jesus is now going to institute what we refer to as the Lord's Supper. So Judas is gone. It tells us in other gospel accounts that at that point in time, Judas left.

Everybody else thought Judas was just, because nobody still believed that this was, that Judas was the guy. And because the disciples weren't always as sharp as they should be. Judas leaves. The disciples think he's going out to get more supplies for the Passover. It tells us at that point in time, one of the most bone-chilling statements in all of Scripture. And at that time,

Satan entered him. And if there was a musical accompaniment with the Bible, it would be, bum, bum, bum, right? Because that's sort of the bone-chilling feel that you get when that statement is made. Judas went out into the night, and Satan filled him. Jesus now looks to the rest of his disciples, and he begins to talk to them about a brand new covenant that will be formed because of his sacrifice for them. It says, while they were eating,

Jesus took some bread. And after a blessing, he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, take, eat, this is my body. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of this fruit of the

vine from now on until the day when I drink it with you, new in my Father's kingdom. The Lord's Supper. Now, again, they're celebrating what's known as the Passover meal. And in the Passover meal, remember, it's a feast of unleavened bread. And so the bread that they would have used was exactly that. And so Jesus takes one of the pieces of bread. Towards the end of the meal,

there's multiple pieces of bread that were used for different things throughout the meal, all of them very symbolic in nature. But Jesus takes one of the pieces of bread, if you've never seen a piece of flat bread that is unleavened, it's literally a square, and it is incredibly thin. And when you look at this incredibly thin square, what you see is you see a bunch of little holes, and you see stripes. The bread is pierced and striped. So I want you

to think about something. The bread is free from leaven, which leaven throughout Scripture refers to sin. So if you will, this bread is pure. This bread is pierced. And this bread is unleavened. This bread is striped. And we know that what Jesus did when he took the bread is that he broke it. And so this pure, pierced, striped piece of bread, by the way, what did Jesus refer

to himself as? I am the bread of life. He takes it, and he breaks it. And he says, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take and eat. He takes this bread and completely redefines it. He redefines what this bread is. This bread now no longer represents their deliverance from the nation of Egypt. This bread now represented a perfect sacrifice that was made for them. Because that's exactly what's going to happen to Jesus. His body is going to

be broken for them. His flesh is going to be pierced and striped and broken for them, for the forgiveness of their sins. And every time we partake of that bread, we are reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And then it says, he took the cup. And as he took the cup, he said, he gave thanks, and he gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you,

for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. There were several cups that were passed during the Passover meal. One of them was what's known as the cup of redemption. That's the cup that Jesus would have held up. He held up this cup, and he says, something brand new is about to take place here. You need to take and drink this, all of you, because this is now my

blood, which is shed for the many for the forgiveness of sins. If you don't know very much about the old covenant, the old covenant was sealed in blood. You see, Moses had given the nation of Israel a cup of blood, and he said, I'm going to give you a cup of blood, and I'm going to hand it over to you. And so he took the cup of blood, and he said, I'm going to give you a cup of blood, and I'm going to hand it over to you. And so he took the cup of blood, and he gave it to

Israel, the Ten Commandments, and they declared that they would obey everything that God had to say. And so what he did is he sacrificed an animal, sacrificed a bull, and then he took what's known as hyssop, basically a big bunch of prairie grass. And he dipped it in the blood and water, and he took that, and as the congregation of the nation of Israel sat there, he took the blood, and he sprinkled it on all of them. And he says, the old covenant is now sealed in blood because you have declared that you will obey it. Except do you know what the nation of Israel said? He said,

except do you know what the nation of Israel did with the old covenant? They disobeyed it and they broke it. But as that old covenant was sealed in blood the first time, the new covenant was sealed in blood the second time. Only it wasn't the blood of a bull or a goat. It was the blood of the spotless lamb of God, Jesus himself. And so when he holds up this cup and says,

this is the cup of the new covenant, it means that it is a brand new covenant based on better promises. That's what we're told in the book of Hebrews. It's based on better promises because it's not based upon the promise of man saying I will obey God. It's the promise of God to man saying I've already done it for you. I have done everything for you. This guarantees your salvation.

And so he says, take and drink all of you. I will not drink this again until it's new in the kingdom. Now I think that there's a handful of things that we pay attention to. Here are three things actually. What we learn is, like I said, first of all, we have a new covenant that's based on better promises. My acceptance before God is not based on my own obedience.

It's based on my faith and the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And every time we celebrate the Passover meal, every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we declare that my standing of salvation is based on a better covenant than what it was before. The second thing that we learn is this. You have to take and eat and drink. If you were to look at the Gospel of John,

not in this particular section, but if you were to read through the Gospel of John, there comes a point in time when Jesus looks at those following him and he says, I tell you, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me. And they all kind of went, dude, that's weird. And afterwards, his disciples were like, hey, you know, everybody kind of got a little weirded out about that whole thing, about drinking your blood and eating your flesh. What exactly do you mean by that?

Jesus says, you'll understand. You'll understand. Well, this is what he's talking about. See, in order for me to put my faith in Jesus, there has to be an active thing that I do on my part. The active thing I do on my part is I have to take it in for myself. I have to take it in for myself. I have to take of the bread and eat. I have to take of the wine and drink.

That means that I have to appropriate this to myself in the same way that in ancient Israel, or in ancient Egypt, excuse me, when they were being set free from the nation of Egypt, they couldn't just own a lamb. They couldn't just sacrifice a lamb. They then had to take the blood of that lamb and apply it to the doorposts of their home in order for their home to be able to drink the blood of that lamb. And that's what he's talking about.

That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. You and I can't just know that Jesus exists. We can't just know that he was a savior. We can't just know that he died and rose again. We must take and eat and drink and make it a part of who we are.

I have to put active faith in my savior. Because otherwise, just knowing that he exists doesn't really do me any good. I take who he is and make him a part of who I am. Then I am born again. But the third thing that I want to point out to you is this. Do you notice how Jesus looked ahead to the victory? Look at verse 31 again. Or excuse me, verse 29 again. He says, but I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on

until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. See, that's a looking ahead to a victory that is yet to come. Because what Jesus is about to face in the next 24 hours is death. What Jesus is about to face in the next 24 hours is the most horrific thing any human being could go through. And yet, he's looking beyond what he's facing here, and he's looking at the fact that there is a victory to come.

That there is a victory in the new kingdom to come. Because he says, one thing I know for sure is that I will drink this brand new in the kingdom with you. Because I don't plan on doing this again here on this earth. The next time that I do, it will be with you. And you know what we call that? In the book of Revelation, it's called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

That's when we'll drink this again with him, brand new. Why? Because our victory is guaranteed. Our victory is secured. Our victory is sure in Christ. Yesterday at men's breakfast, we went over a little verse, a verse that's become incredibly important. To me, it's 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 24. Now, I know it better in the New King James than I do in the New American Standards,

so that's what I'll quote it in. It says, he who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Do you know what that means? It means that the God who has called me into salvation is the God that will keep me saved, and the God that will ultimately save me in the future. Because you see, my salvation, just like your salvation, has three tenses that are used. In the past, I was saved.

The day that I came to Jesus as my Lord and Savior and said, I'm a knucklehead sinner and I need a Savior, I became saved, positionally belonging to him. Every day of my life right now, I'm being saved. I'm being saved from the power of sin in my life on a continual basis. As he shows me how I need to walk and gives me the strength to walk the way that I need to, I am being saved.

But one day, one day he's gonna take me home to be with him. And at that point in time, I will be saved. Set free from the body of sin, set free from the failures of this world, and at home with my Savior. That's the ultimate victory that he's talking about here. He sees into the future in that place of ultimate victory. And so he gives them this meal, this last supper that they are to keep.

And as he does so, we come to verse 30. It says, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And so we come to the second part of what I wanted to discuss this morning. And the second part that I want to discuss this morning is what I refer to as the warning. Because he's gonna speak to his disciples about the things that are coming. He's gonna speak to his disciples

about the difficulties that they're gonna face in about the next five or six hours and how they might not handle that very well. And so again, we pick up, in verse 30, it says, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. But Peter said to him, even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Peter said, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And all of the disciples said the same thing.

Now again, put yourself back in the scene. Judas has just left. Judas has already made a deal with the religious leaders. The deal that he made with him is that he would find a place where they could get Jesus and they could arrest him and they could take him and try him and put him to death. And so as Jesus gets ready to leave, it says that as they left, they departed for the Mount of Olives.

Now why is that important? Well, because where have we seen Jesus hang out so much during this time that he's been in Jerusalem? We've seen him hang out on the Mount of Olives. We've seen him hang out on the Mount of Olives. He's going to go to a place that's as familiar as any place possible. Now if I'm Jesus and I know Judas is going to try to find me, I'm going to go somewhere that nobody knows about.

I'm going to choose a new spot. But you see Jesus is in charge of this whole thing. Jesus is the one who's sovereignly in charge of this whole operation. Because this is the reason he came. So he doesn't want to go someplace where he's not going to be found. He wants to go someplace where Judas wouldn't be found. even have to try hard to find him because Jesus was a willing sacrifice. So as they departed,

it says that they sang a hymn. You ever thought about Jesus singing? I've never thought about Jesus singing until I did this study this time. I wonder if he was a good singer or I wonder if his disciples were like, Jesus, a little quieter next time, please. Right? Like what was that like to hear Jesus sing? But Jesus led them in singing. Now, probably what they would have sung

was what's known as the Hallel Psalms, Psalms 113 through 118, because that would have been a common psalm for them to sing at that point in time. And for your own personal study and maybe your own personal singing, perhaps you look up Psalms 113 through 118. And you sing them yourself. I didn't intend to make this point, but I do think that it's one to be made. There is something powerful about singing. I don't know if you ever noticed that

or not, but there's a release that comes through singing praises to God that come in very few other ways. And listen, I know that's not an overly manly statement to make, but it's just true. And I think sometimes, especially us as men, we cause ourselves to be held back a little bit from what God wants to do in our lives, because we think it would be kind of dumb for us to do that. To sing out loud. And quite frankly, if you're anything like me, nobody really enjoys listening

to it anyway. But there's something to be said about not only personal worship time with the Lord, personal time where you take time to sing to the Lord. But brothers and sisters, when we're right here in church and you're just belting it out. Listen, I have been so blessed these past few months, because for a long time in this church, I felt like nobody really sang. I would be like,

why did people stop singing? And slowly but surely, over the past few years, I've listened to that change. But what I've really noticed is, and it's maybe even been this past year, the whole ding-dong congregation just sings out like crazy. And I just want to say, keep it up. Because there is nothing better than to hear a bunch of off-key people just absolutely belting out God's praise. Right? Because Jesus doesn't

care if you're in tune. Listen, you know who is probably the most out of tune of all of us. Peter. You know that guy couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, right? I bet he sang louder than everybody else in the world and got everybody else off. There's just something really powerful about it. It has that ability to pull you out of the depths, to pour out emotions that you

didn't even know were in there, straight out to the Father. So it says, they sung a hymn together and they departed for the Mount of Olives. Now, when this conversation took place, I don't exactly know, but I think it was probably on the walk. I think several conversations took place with his disciples on the walk. Right? Again, there's nothing quite like walking or

running with Jesus. Sidebar. So running for me has never been a team sport. Right? Like I've never been somebody that wants to find a running partner to run with. There's only been one time in my life when I've had a running partner and I'm married to her now. And that was because I thought she was cute. And I'd say, hey, you know what? I'm going to run with you. And she's like,

you want to go run with me? And yeah. And then after we got married, she was like, you want to go run? I'm like, I'm really more of a loner when it comes to running. And she's like, anyway. So running's always been a really personal thing for me. And I've tried to explain to people, they're always like, hey, can I go running with you? And I'm always like, no. And they're like,

but you have to understand when I run, I'm not just getting exercise. I'm running with Jesus. Right? Like that's literally the, the most spiritual time I have in my entire week. Cause I'm not a human being that's good at sitting down and praying. I just, I, you know, my ADHD kicks in and I start thinking about everything in the world and I just, I can't focus. But there's a physiological thing that happens

when you run. Not enough brain, not enough blood is going to your brain, which I know you probably think happens to me a whole lot more than just when I'm running. Not enough blood goes to your brain. It's going to other places in your, in your body. So you can't overthink. So when I run, my head's just clear and I can just pour out my heart to the Lord. I've sung out loud when I've

run. I have cried when I've run. I have prayed out loud when I've run. Most people do think I'm smiling all the time when I'm running. But the fact of the matter is I'm usually just talking while I'm running. And there's just, there's nothing quite like doing those kinds of activities with Jesus to really pour out your heart to him. Because so many things happened with Jesus and

his disciples when they were on a walk. Because while they're on this walk is when I think he teaches them about the abiding life. I think that they were probably, and they're in John 15, walking by a vineyard and he said, I'm the vine and you're the branches. He who abides in me, as the branch does in the vine, bears much fruit. But one of the other things that took place with Jesus as they were walking

is he begins to warn his disciples about something. I think with an incredibly heavy heart, Jesus knowing what's coming for him and knowing that his disciples are still, a bunch of knucklehead weaklings, looks at them and says, you will all fall away because of me tonight. It had to have been a hard thing for Jesus to let out of his mouth. Now, it's different than one of you will betray me. This is just simply,

and I think one of the other gospel accounts says, all of you will be caused to stumble because of me tonight. After all, it says in the book of Zechariah that if you strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter. It says, all of you are going to do that. All of you are going to flee from me tonight. I love that next verse, verse 32. But after I've been raised, I'll go ahead of you to Galilee.

He essentially looks at all of his disciples and says, you guys are all going to blow it worse than you ever have in your entire lives tonight. You're all going to abandon me and I'm going to be stuck all by my onesies. But I want you to know something. After I've been raised, I'll go ahead of you to Galilee. I'll go ahead of you to Galilee. After I've been raised, I'll go ahead of you to Galilee. I'll go ahead of you to Galilee.

After I'm raised from the dead, meet me in Galilee. I'm going to go ahead of you. In other words, I'm still going to love you. I'm still going to forgive you. I'm still going to accept you. You're still going to be my people. You just have a little bit of a long road ahead of you. But you're all going to be caused to stumble because of me tonight. I appreciate

so much about Jesus. And he knows where we're going to blow it. And he still says, but don't worry, meet me in Galilee. You're probably going to blow it worse than you ever have before, but meet me in Galilee because you're still my people. Sometimes I wish I knew what he knew, but if nothing else, I'm glad that he knows me. But of course, then we see Peter's response. But Peter said to him, even though all may fall away because of you, I will

never. Fall away. Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you this very night before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Again, other gospel accounts tell us a little bit more about this conversation. They say that Jesus looks at him and says, Peter, Satan has asked for you. He might sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you. When you return, bring the disciples with you. He says, Peter, what you don't realize is

before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. It's such a bold statement by Peter, right? Lord, even if all of these other people go away from you, I will never abandon you. I don't know what these other knuckleheads plan on doing, but I'm not going to do that. I'm sticking with you. And you know what? I think Peter believed that at that point. I think Peter believed that at that

point in time. Because Peter did not realize just how weak he was. Because in his mind, he thought, I'll never do that. I'm not capable of that. I will never be that person. Jesus says, not only are you that person, but you're going to deny that you even know me. Of course, Peter goes on to say, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. As I was studying this last night,

the words to a Rich Mullins song went through my head. And I'm going to be honest. I went down a Rich Mullins rabbit trail for just a little bit, and I just listened to his songs for about an hour last night. But if you're going to go down a rabbit hole, listening to Rich Mullins songs is a really good rabbit hole to go down, because you'll be really encouraged. So do that later. Just go down

a little rabbit hole listening to some Rich Mullins songs. The line to a Rich Mullins song went through my head. It's the very end of a stanza, and it says, we must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are. We're in a dangerous place as believers in Jesus Christ the minute that we say things like, I would never. Because the moment we say something like, I would never, is the moment

that we begin to never all over the place. Never like we've never, never before. Because once I begin to think that, pride has begun to settle into my heart. Did Peter believe himself at this point in time? Absolutely he did. He had never been more sure of himself in his entire life. That was his problem. We're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

I continue to be struck over and over again with the knowledge of my frailty, not only as physically as a human being, but spiritually as a man of God. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you name it, I'm capable of it. Those are hard things to say out loud, and they're hard truths to believe in your heart. But I know that if I don't live with that knowledge, that if I don't own up to that truth,

someone will be standing in front of a congregation telling a story about me. And if you don't believe that that's true, someone will be visiting with a group of friends telling a story about you. Because we have to live with the understanding that in us, that is in our flesh, dwells no good thing. We're all capable of some pretty, heinous acts. Only by the grace of God can we be who he's called for us to be.

Only by the grace of God can we not end up being in a place where Peter finds himself right now. Jesus looks at his disciples and says, I need you to know this. Why did he have to tell them that? Why did he have to tell them those things? Why did he have to make this a bummer of a situation for them? Because he wanted them to be ready for it. He wanted them to know, even if it happens, even when it happens, I'm still going to meet you in

Galilee. I'm still going to be there on the other side. You're still going to be my people. I'm still going to be your God. I still have a job that I want you to do. I don't know where anybody in this room sits with things that are going on in your lives right now. Perhaps you're in the place where God's giving you some warnings and God's saying, you'd better be careful because this is

what's going to happen to you. You're going to be there on the other side. You're going to be there if you're not. We need to listen to those kinds of warnings in life because one of the things that I've learned is if I fail to heed God's warnings, then I will always do what he said I'm probably about to do. Some of you may be here this morning and you have found yourself being just like Peter

or just like the disciples and you stumbled worse than you ever have before. I want you to know Jesus is waiting for you in Galilee. He just wants you to come back to him. He just wants you to come back. Seek his forgiveness. Seek his grace because he still has something that he wants you to do. He still wants to be your God. He still wants you to be his people and he still

has a job for you. There's much to be learned here tonight in this Garden of Gethsemane scene, but we'll stop there for today and we'll pick up in a couple of weeks with a prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Would you stand with me? We're coming into Thanksgiving week. I got to tell you, one of the biggest things that I'm thankful for is that God is a God of restoration. That word restoration

has been running through my head all this week because that's exactly who he is. I've seen it in my own life, watching it happen in the lives of people that I love. I see it happen in the lives of his disciples here and I pray that you know him in that exact same way. For me, the biggest thing that I'm thankful for is restoration. I want you to make sure that you are thanking God

for what he's done in your life and the things that you are the most thankful for. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word. Lord, I ask that you would minister to us by the power of your Holy Spirit and as we go out from this place, as we move into this week, Lord, would you overflow our hearts with gratitude? Would you overflow our hearts with a thankfulness for all the things that you've done for us?

Give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear. We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Lord, God, that is true. Lord, your love never fails. Lord, you are always faithful, Lord, even when we're not. Lord, even when we are away from you, Lord, when we're in rebellion and in sin, Lord, and just in utter despair. God, you are always faithful. You always have been and you always will be, Lord. And I thank you. Lord, we love you and we praise you, God.

We pray these things. We pray these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Be blessed.