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Well, please turn with me in
your Bibles to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 26, using the
passion narrative in Matthew for our Lord's Supper meditation.
Tonight we find ourselves in the Lord's arrest in the garden.
We saw the Lord's prayer in the garden in verses 36 to 46. Last
time we saw the Lord's betrayal in the garden, verses 47 to verse
50a. And then tonight we're looking
at the Lord's arrest in the garden, verses 50b to 56. And there is structurally four
things going on in verses 47 to 56. You have the betrayal
of Jesus or the kiss of Judas in verses 47 to 50. You have
the defense of Jesus, the sword of Peter, in verses 51 to 54.
You have the assertion by Jesus of the enmity of the mob in verses
55 and 56a. And then finally, the desertion
of Jesus, the flight of the disciples in verse 56b. So I'll read this
section, and then we'll look at this particular passage. So
beginning in verse 47, and while he was still speaking, behold,
Judas, one of the 12, with a great multitude with swords and clubs,
came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now his
betrayer had given them a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, he is
the one. Seize him. Immediately he went
up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi, and kissed him. But Jesus
said to him, Friend, why have you come? Then they came and
laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly one of those
who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword,
struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. But
Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place, for all who take
the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I
cannot now pray to my father and he will provide me with more
than 12 legions of angels? How then could the scriptures
be fulfilled that it must happen thus? In that hour, Jesus said
to the multitudes, have you come out as against a robber with
swords and clubs to take me? I sat daily with you, teaching
in the temple, and you did not seize me. But all this was done
that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all
the disciples forsook him and fled. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for
this passage. We thank You for the events that it rehearses
to us and for our Lord's passion. And God, we know He didn't go
to that cross because He was a criminal, because He was a
sinner. He went to that cross for us men and for our salvation.
And we give praise to You for this. We give praise to You that
You have made us partakers in the benefits wrought out by our
Savior. And God, certainly we see the
extent to which He went on behalf of the elect that You had given
to Him. And God, this amazes us, and it causes us to want
to worship and to glorify and praise. So fill us with your
Spirit, encourage our hearts again, forgive us for all sin
and transgression, and we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, amen. Well, as I said, we're looking
at the Lord's arrest in the garden, and essentially we have the defense
of Jesus or the sword of Peter in verses 50B to 54. Then we'll look at the assertion
by Jesus in verses 55 to 56 when he addresses the multitude or
mob, and then finally the desertion of Jesus by the disciples. So let's look first at the sword
of Peter or the defense of Jesus. Notice the arrest indicated in
verse 50B. So Judas has betrayed Him with
a kiss, he's identified correctly the person that they are seeking,
and now they came, it says, and laid hands on Jesus and took
Him. The language that is employed,
they laid hands on Him, connotes hostility. were roughing him
up. This was an arrest of one they
believed or one they thought was in fact a threat to the Roman
Empire. Remember, these were not Jews.
These were Roman officers or Roman soldiers that were tasked
with this particular event. And so they had no concern whatsoever
to make people feel comfortable. They had no concern whatsoever
to make people feel okay. There was no threat in terms
of them violating somebody's civil rights. They laid their
unholy hands upon the one that is holy, harmless, and undefiled."
And you see that contrast here, that Christ ultimately is given
into the hands of wicked sinners. The Geneva Bible says, Christ
is taken that we might be delivered. And that is absolutely precisely
the truth. Christ is taken that we might
be delivered. And then as we look at this passage and we think
about what we saw last time in John 18.6, remember we compared
that passage, John's account, when we saw the betrayal. When
Jesus says, I am, all the people standing there withdrew and fell
to the ground. Certainly if Jesus wanted to
withstand this arrest, he was more than capable to do so. But
Jesus voluntarily surrenders himself again for us men and
for our salvation. He is not an unwilling participant
in the redemptive work that had been given to him. But rather,
as the second person of the Trinity, he carries out perfectly the
covenant of redemption. Remember, the covenant of redemption
is that covenant between the persons of the Trinity to save
His people from their sin. The Father elected and handed
a great mass of people to the Son, the Son covenants to be
the surety and the mediator on their behalf, and the Son covenants
to come into this world and to exact the penalty that is due
for us in Himself in order to redeem us, in order to save us.
So He voluntarily surrenders to this particular mob. Now notice
the action taken by Peter in verse 51. It says, and suddenly
one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew
his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off
his ear. Now the apostle John identifies for us the swordsman
as Peter and identifies as well this man who had his ear lopped
off and his name was Malchus. And when we look at this, Calvin,
I think, is perceptive. He says, we are much more courageous
and ready for fighting than for bearing the cross. I'm not altogether
convinced that is accurate with reference to the church today,
but I think we sort of feel his point. We're far more jumping
into it when there's a fight to be had rather than to bear
the cross. Remember, Jesus is resolved to
do the will of His Father, and the will of the Father for Jesus
is that He drinks the cup of God's wrath, that He undergoes
this overwhelming baptism unto death, and yet here Peter is
trying to mar that. Peter is trying to stop that
up. Intriguingly, it is as a result of this particular instance that
Peter is ultimately identified because the servant in the courtyard
was a relative of this man Malchus. So you see, in God's providence
how all of these things unfolded. With reference to the condemnation
or the reproof or the rebuke by Jesus with reference to him
putting away the sword, there's a couple things we ought to consider.
In the first place, Jesus is concerned for Peter's life. In
fact, turn to John 18. Jesus is concerned for Peter's
life. John chapter 18, specifically
at verses 8 and 9. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am He. Therefore, if you seek me, let
these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which
He spoke, of those whom you gave me, I have lost none. The use
of the sword invites a reciprocal use of the sword. And the reality
is, is that if Peter engages in this kind of activity, they're
going to take out their swords as well. Only they're not going
to miss the headshot. These are trained soldiers. They're
not going to slip up and cut off Peter's ear. They're going
to cut off Peter's head. So Jesus chides him or Jesus
tells him to put the sword away because he is concerned for Peter's
life. But secondly, the nature of the
messianic kingdom. We are not to advance the gospel
kingdom through the use of the sword. We're not to advance the
gospel kingdom through the use of weaponry. The weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, but they
are mighty for the pulling down of strongholds. We see the same
sort of thing in John 18, 37. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world, I would
fight, or my servants, rather, would fight. And the implication
is, Pilate, we would win. We would clean up. We would decimate
your opposition. But the nature of Christ's kingdom
is not advanced by the sword. Royal says the sword is not to
be used in the propagation of the gospel. Christianity is not
to be enforced by bloodshed and belief in it. extorted by force. So we see Peter take out the
sword, take this headshot, miss, cut off Malchus's ear, and then
our Lord Jesus heals him, and then our Lord Jesus then rebuked
Simon Peter. And so when he rebuked Simon
Peter, I think we need to think in these terms, the concern for
his life, the reminder concerning Messiah's kingdom, but then as
well, notice what Jesus says in verse 52, put your sword in
its place. That language indicates that
swords have a place, and Peter was to put it in its place. Now,
you might think this is an odd sort of a distinction to make,
but several weeks ago we considered the doctrine of self-defense
as taught by Holy Scripture. Swords are useful for self-defense. Swords are given to the civil
magistrate to engage in capital punishment. And obviously, swords,
or guns now, are given to soldiers so that they may fight in legitimate
wars. There is a time to raise the
sword, but it was not in this particular instance. There was
a time or is a time, even presently, if we go to legitimate war, or
if the civil magistrate does execute criminal offenders, or
if we are tasked with defending ourselves or those in close proximity
to us, we are able or authorized by scripture to use that force
necessary up to and including lethal force should it become
necessary to protect our lives. But that's not what's happening
here. This is the messianic agenda. Christ has to be arrested. Christ
has to be taken before godless men. Christ has to be ultimately
consigned to crucifixion so that he might die in the stead of
his people. So he chides Peter, he rebukes
Peter, and he tells Peter to put the sword back in its sheath. Now the parallel tells us that
he healed Malchus. And he heals Malchus in order
to show or verify or confirm what he says in verse 55. He's
not a criminal. He's not out here fomenting insurrection. He doesn't have an axe to grind
against Roman soldiers. Rather, he healed them, but as
well to protect Peter, because as Peter goes for that shot,
As I said earlier, the use of the sword invites the reciprocal
use of the sword, and Jesus doesn't want him to die. Jesus rather
wants him to hold off so that Jesus can go as it has been prescribed
in order to save his people from their sins. And before we leave
this portion, we see that Peter obviously had zeal. That's commendable,
brethren, not the manner in which he chose to pursue it, but it
is commendable that Peter has this zeal. Suddenly, one of those
who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword,
struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
But Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place, for all who
take the sword will perish by the sword. Now with reference
to zeal for the kingdom, we admire it as displayed by Peter, but
we need to qualify it and make sure that zeal for the kingdom
is according to God's will. It is according to God's mind.
It is according to God's revelation. Not everybody who's zealous is
necessarily zealous according to knowledge. And we need to
make sure that our zeal for the kingdom is tempered by the written
word of the living and true God. Because it's not right to express
zeal without knowledge because we'll end up doing more harm
than we will do good. Calvin makes the observation,
in order that our obedience may be acceptable to the Lord, we
must depend on his will so that no man shall move a finger except
so far as God commands. That is a great rule of thought
with reference to this issue of zeal. Not everybody who is
zealous is necessarily zealous according to knowledge. Sometimes
you meet people with terrible theology, and they have all of
this zeal. And you want to temper or tamp
down their zeal, and then we, the Reformed, have all this great
theology, but we don't have the corresponding zeal. Brethren,
we of all people ought to be zealous for the glory of God
most high. And by saying this, I'm not suggesting
go get swords and lop off Malchus's ear. That's not what I'm suggesting. But let that zeal affect us in
such a way that we do what Paul told the Philippians. We shine
as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, and we hold forth
the word of truth. that we seek to promote the glory
of God, that we seek to evangelize sinners in the cause of Christ,
that we point men, women, boys, and girls to that one who's altogether
lovely and chief among 10,000. I've often thought that the theology
that even our children have If our children are taught Westminster
Shorter Catechism number four, what is God? God is spirit, infinite,
eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness, and truth. Our children reciting that probably
know about 80% more theology than pastors that are presently
preaching in pulpits. We have the goods, theologically
speaking. We don't use the 1689 Confession
of Faith because it's wrong. We don't use it because we're
narrow-minded, bigoted people. We don't use it because we're
fighting fundies. We use it because it rightly
identifies those things most surely believed among us. And
to be quite candid, brethren, when it comes to Reformed theology,
we have the goods. We ought to have a zeal that
is consistent with having those goods, and we ought not to engage
in the sorts of things we see condemned here, but we ought
to be zealous for the glory of God Most High. That is a good
thing. That is a right thing. That is
a blessed thing. So Jesus chides Peter with reference
to the function of the sword. The sword does have its place,
but not in this particular context, Peter. Remember when Peter in
chapter 16 tells Jesus, may it never be, after Jesus announces
that he must go to Jerusalem, he must be tried, he must be
handed over to death by lawless men, Peter says, may it never
be. That's when Jesus rebukes him. Peter is thinking wrongly
about the messianic mission, and Christ corrects him in Matthew
16, and he corrects him here. But he not only chides him with
reference to the function of the sword. Look at what he says
concerning the assistance of his father in verse 53. Or do you think that I cannot
now pray to my father and he will provide me with more than
12 legions of angels? A legion at this particular time,
you look at Wikipedia, it's gonna shift in terms of numbers. At
this particular time, it was roughly 6,000 troops. So Jesus
says, don't you think I could ask my father and have 12 legions
of angels sent to aid and assist me? Now this is consistent with
his resolve in verse 39, not my will, but thine be done. He's resolved not to ask for
that assistance. But it isn't the case that he
couldn't ask. It isn't the case that that blessed
assistance wouldn't be there if, in fact, the agenda was different. So Christ is not at a position
of disadvantage in the sense of, these men are going to be
able to do whatever it is they want. No, they are under the
direction of a sovereign God. If the sovereign God of heaven
and earth wanted them rebuffed, wanted them put off, if He wanted
them stopped, then He could have dispatched these angels to handily
deal with this particular situation. The statement further demonstrates
His resolve to do the Father's will and to show that His Father
is ultimately in the control of the situation. It isn't them. They are not authoritative. They
are not the final game or the final sort of stage in this process. It is the Father who is over
all these things. And then notice what He says
finally, that this fulfills the Scripture. So all of this to
answer Peter in Peter's impetuousness, withdrawing that sword, going
for Malchus's head, missing and hitting his ear. Jesus heals
Malchus and then Jesus chides Peter. The sword has a particular
function. There is assistance available
to me should I want it. But as well, notice for Jesus,
it is the fulfillment of scripture that is paramount. Verse 54,
how then could the scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen
thus? The scriptures are obvious. Psalm
22 speaks of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel
9, the prophecy of the 70 weeks, speaks about Messiah being cut
off. And of course, Isaiah the prophet
in chapter 53. It is a chapter packed filled
with substitutionary atonement concerning the servant of Yahweh
who would come to save his people from their sins. For Christ,
it was the honor of his father. For Christ, it was the fulfillment
of Scripture, and for Christ, that meant going to these lengths
in order to save us from our sins. So again, I think as we
look at this, our hearts ought to be warm, our hearts ought
to be encouraged at the thought that the Lord Christ went to
these lengths on our behalf. Spurgeon says, neither Jewish
bands nor Roman ropes could have held him captive if he had not
been under the bond of a mightier force, even that eternal covenant
into which he had entered on behalf of his people. Praise
God Almighty that the Lord Christ never shrank back. never stop
carrying out his resolve. We see it in Luke chapter 9,
when he starts to make his trek to Jerusalem, the scripture says
he set his face like a flint. That's the old King James. The
new King James says he steadfastly went toward Jerusalem. Nothing
could shake him, nothing could detract him, nothing could stop
him, nothing could stay the hand of the Savior when he's on that
mission, to glorify the Father in the redemption of his people.
Praise God, we are numbered among his people. So that's the defense
of Jesus. Now notice, secondly, the assertion
by Jesus with reference to the mob, with reference to the crowd,
the multitude. Notice his question. It's rhetorical. It is designed to provoke from
them or evoke from them, not so much a response, but a hearing. Look at what he says in verse
55. In that hour, Jesus said to the multitude, have you come
out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? Again, it's rhetorical. He's
not asking for an answer, but he is rather highlighting the
insanity of this, the ludicrousness of this. He is not a robber,
and the word that is utilized here, I'm sure we've looked at
before in the past, it could also be revolutionary. It could
also be terrorist. It is applied to the Jewish leaders
in 2123, and it is there translated as criminal, and that is 2113. So now we have the criminals
who've come to arrest an innocent man. But he says, have you come
out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me?
Notice what he then says, I sat daily with you, teaching in the
temple, and you did not seize me. You could see this play out
before us today on CNN. You could see this play out before
us today. This is absolutely backwards. He's not a threat to the civil
polity. He is not a threat to the Roman
Empire. He's only a threat to the Jewish
leadership who are motivated by envy. They are motivated by
their hatred for him. And so they have aroused these
troops, they have gotten the Roman Empire essentially to sign
off on this deal, and now they've come with guns blazing to arrest
a man who was holy, harmless, and undefiled. To arrest a man
who, in the language of the Apostle Paul, knew no sin. There was
no blemish in him. He was, in fact, the perfect
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the
nature of the rhetorical question. Have you come after me as if
I'm a common criminal? I sat daily with you in your
temple teaching you the scriptures. When's the offense? What's the
problem? Why are you doing what you are
engaged in? He is showing the folly that
was theirs. The Lord was not fomenting or
thinking through or hatching this plan to overthrow the civil
authority. The Lord was present in their
temple teaching the Word of God Almighty. And it underscores
the contrast between his nonviolent mission in saving his people
from their sins and the violence that had to transpire in order
for him to be able to do that. He had to die in accordance with
the prophets. He had to die according to the
father's plan. We know that the prophet Isaiah
says it pleased Yahweh to crush him, to put him to grief. Why? Again, for us. If the table reminds
you of anything, may it remind you of the great love wherewith
He hath loved us, the blessedness, the goodness, the kindness, the
compassion, the mercy and the grace of our Lord Jesus, that
He goes through this. Brethren, we wouldn't do that.
We'd say, I'm an innocent man. You have framed me. I don't understand
why you're putting a nice guy like me through this kind of
stuff. Praise God that Jesus didn't
have that mindset. Praise God that Jesus was willing
to submit to the Father's will at every step of the way, in
every jot and tittle, even to the extent that unholy hands
were laid upon him, that charges were laid upon him that were
simply not true, and that ultimately he would be drawn up on a cross
and crucified for us and for our salvation. And notice in
terms of his response, again, his appeal to scripture. He says
in verse 55, I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and
you did not seize me. But all this was done that the
scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Calvin says he
was not dragged to death by external violence, except so far as wicked
men carried into execution the secret purpose of God. It's an
intriguing study, brethren. We know that the hypostatic union
of our Lord Jesus highlights the true divinity of Christ,
second person of the Trinity, assumes our humanity with all
the essential properties and common infirmities thereof and
yet without sin. So he is true divinity, but he's
also true humanity. Look at the gospel of Luke for
just a moment in Luke 2. Luke chapter 2. Verse 39, so when they had performed
all things, according to the law of the Lord, they returned
to Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. And the child, this
is Jesus, grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom,
and the grace of God was upon him. And then notice in verse
51, then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was
subject to them, but his mother kept all these things in her
heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor
with God and men. This increase in wisdom was not
according to his divinity. There is no increase in wisdom
for God. It is according to his humanity.
And good commentators and good theologians have reflected upon
the reality that Jesus as a young man, Jesus as a boy, when he
spent time reading scripture, he was reading about himself.
It was informing him. It was filling the messianic
consciousness of our blessed Savior. such that he was learning
as he went along, again, according to his humanity, those things
that would affect him. He understands this, he knows
this, and he appeals to this reality in this particular setting. He does it elsewhere as well
when he highlights the necessity that the Scriptures be fulfilled,
but he does that here. He says all of this occurs because
God is sovereign, He has spoken through the prophets, He has
given me my marching orders, and these things must come to
pass in order for God to be glorified and in order for sinners to be
saved. It really is glorious stuff that
we see here. And then notice finally the desertion
by the apostles. This is the most grievous passage
of Scripture. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled. Let's look at their previous
allegiance. Go back to Matthew 19. Matthew
chapter 19. or the statements of their allegiance.
Matthew 19 at verse 27. And then look over at Matthew
20. Matthew 20 specifically at verse 23. So he said to them, you will
indeed drink my cup and be baptized in my name, be baptized with
the baptism rather that I am baptized with, but to sit on
my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is
for those for whom it is prepared by my father. So in that, Jesus
is asserting they will continue with him to the end. But in this
instance, they desert him. We know that Simon Peter had
announced his willingness to even die with Jesus should it
be necessary. Look at 2633. But Peter answered
and said to him, even if all are made to stumble because of
you, I will never be made to stumble. Well then we see Peter,
along with the rest of the disciples, forsook him and fled. They left him. At his hour of
desperation, again according to his humanity, in his hour
of greatest need, his closest friends abandoned him. He's kind
of like that scapegoat. Remember the scapegoat on the
Day of Atonement? You had two goats in that formality
or in that ritual. You had the one goat that was
cut. You had the one goat that was slain. You had that goat
whose blood was then taken and carried in to the Holy of Holies
and poured on the mercy seat for the sins of the people, for
the sins of the high priest. And then there was that other
goat, and the high priest took his hands and he laid his hands
upon that goat, I was going to say the high goat, no it was
just the low goat, and he confessed the transgressions of Israel,
and then he sends that goat out into the wilderness all by himself. He expiates, or he carries away
the sin of the people of Israel. Christ is alone on the cross.
Christ does not have the benefit of friends and neighbors and
close associates that are trying to help Him. Christ is doing
what He does as the alone Savior for sinners. This is why the
angel announces, it is He who will save His people from their
sins. And the fact that the disciples
forsook Him and fled is most grievous. But before we rise
up and wag our fingers at them and say to them, how dare you
do that to our beloved Savior? I love what Spurgeon says at
this point. He says, human nature is such
poor stuff, even at the best, that we cannot hope that any
of us would have been braver or more faithful than the apostles
were. Now, we may look at this and
say, oh no, I would never do that. Peter does that thing in
2633. We're not talking about, you
know, years ago, Peter, remember years ago you said that? This
is all happening within the Passion Week. In fact, we're still on
the same day. as when Peter has said, I will
die with you if need be. Do you see how bad, how quick,
how easy it is to flip and to validate what Spurgeon says here? Human nature is such poor stuff,
even at the best, that we cannot hope that any of us would have
been braver or more faithful than the apostles were. So before
we rise up and wag our fingers at them, let us pray to God Most
High to give us the grace and to keep us so that we won't deny,
so that we won't desert, and so that we won't depart the Savior
who never departs, who never deserts, and who has never denied
us and has covenanted never to do so. I will never leave you
and I will never forsake you, saith the Lord God Most High.
We by grace need to say the same thing, praying to the Father
that He would keep us by the power of the Spirit so that we
would not decline with reference to our spiritual place before
a holy God and deny Him to heathen, deny Him to pagans or to atheists. In conclusion, I want to draw
out a few things. First, the warning in the text,
Judas and the disciples. Judas and the disciples, Judas
had close proximity to the Savior and yet he betrays Him. Judas
had close proximity to the Savior and yet he betrayed Him. So we
ought to glean from this or we ought to derive from this that
external position that we assume in proximity to Jesus is no sure
indicator of grace in the heart. Just because we go to church,
just because we own a Bible, just because we go to sermon
audio, just because we listen to, you know, a lot of good preaching,
doesn't necessarily mean. It isn't proximity in terms of
locale, it is rather grace in the heart that is absolutely
crucial and necessary. As well, the privilege we possess
in the service of Christ is no clear indicator of grace in the
heart either. We have no reason whatsoever
to not believe that Judas did the same sorts of things that
the other 11 disciples did. There's nothing in the text that
would keep us from believing that when the disciples were
sent out by Jesus to preach and to heal and to cast out demons,
that only 11 of them were doing it. No, Judas had that same privilege. So again, the privilege that
we may possess in the service of Christ is no true indicator
of grace in the heart. You talk to people sometimes.
Are you a believer? Will I teach Sunday school? Are
you a believer? Will I go to Sunday school? Are
you a believer? Will I go to church? It's all
this stuff that is out there. What it's truly about is faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we can't take proximity to
Jesus or privilege with reference to Jesus as necessary indicators
that there is grace in the heart. And then the theological comment
concerning Judas' apostasy in John 18. John 18 5 tells us,
and Judas who betrayed him also stood with them. Henry, Matthew
Henry says, he that used to stand with those that followed Christ
now stood with those that fought against him. This describes an
apostate. He's one that changes sides.
He herds himself with those with whom his heart has always been
and with whom he shall have his lot in the judgment day. You
see, that little statement that Judas who betrayed him also stood
with them is an indicator of the apostasy that this man underwent. Again, proximity to Jesus was
no sure indicator that there was grace in his heart. Privilege
in the service of Jesus was no sure indicator of grace in the
heart. The only sure indicator of grace
in our hearts is what do we think of Christ? If we believe on Him,
if He is our Lord and our Savior, that is the sure indicator of
grace in our heart. It isn't the mighty exploits
that we undertake, it isn't the privilege that we enjoy, it isn't
the proximity that we possess, it is rather the reality by grace
alone, through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. So we've
got the betrayer, and I'm sure we covered this in the betrayal
last time, but I thought it bared repetition. Study Saul, king
of Israel, to see what apostasy looks like. Study Judas, one
of the twelve, to see what apostasy looks like. But with reference
to the disciples, the apostle Peter takes up the sword and
is rebuked by Christ. Again, we can commend Peter for
his zeal, but it must be zeal with knowledge. It cannot be
an ungoverned, untempered zeal. We're not the arbiters. We're
not the final authority. We don't have the wherewithal
and the wisdom to rightly judge what action we ought to take.
We ought to be prayerful and mindful to the divine will as
revealed to us in both the Old and New Testament. We have this
statement in verse 56, then all the disciples forsook Him and
fled. Brethren, let that be a warning
sign to each and every one of us. All the disciples forsook
him and fled. What a miserable statement. Now,
praise God, there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared.
Remember, when Peter is speaking with Jesus and Jesus tells him
that Satan has desired to sift him like wheat, Jesus says, but
I have prayed for you. And then he tells Peter, and
when you return, Jesus knows that Peter is going to do this,
but when you return, strengthen your brethren. Don't be the sort
of person that indulges that mindset that when it gets going
tough, I'm going to just run off. No, you need to be faithful
and strengthen the brethren. And then the twelve had been
the closest to him, heard the most of his teaching, and obviously,
at least at this point, did not respond accordingly. They fled,
they forsook, they left. Brethren, all of the knowledge
of the scripture, all of the theology of our confession of
faith, we need to pray at home. We need to ask God to make it
practical. We need to ask God to make it
experiential in our lives. It can't simply be up here without
affecting us in our day-to-day actions. We need the grace of
God consistently and the Spirit of God working in through and
by His Word to keep us on the right track and to keep us faithfully
persevering to the very end. Let us guard against the tendency
to overestimate ourselves and let us continually watch and
pray. Simon Peter, in 2633, overestimated himself. I think there's a place for resolve
in the Christian life. I see it in Psalm 119. I think
there is a place for resolve in the hearts of God's people
to say, if somebody puts a gun to my head and asks me to renounce
faith in Jesus Christ, that is not going to happen. We need
to have that resolution in peacetime so that we're prepared for wartime.
But brethren, that resolution is not according to our own strength.
It's not according to our own ability. It's not because we're
great and powerful beings. It's rather God, I make this
resolve asking you to bless it and to bring it to fruition and
to help me stay on the right path should it come to that place
where persons are asking me to deny my Savior. May it never
be, Lord God, and may you keep me such that I would never engage
in such a horrific activity of denying the Savior. We've got
this warning in the text. We've got as well this reminder
in the text. We've already covered it. I'll
just repeat it. Zeal based on knowledge. zeal based on knowledge. Oh, that every one of God's people
had a great level of zeal. But may it always be according
to knowledge. May it always be according to
good theology and to scriptural teaching. Again, sometimes you'll
meet these people that their theology is about that deep,
and yet they have all this zeal for the Lord, and it's wonderful
and admirable to see it in its display, but then as soon as
they start to talk and betray the reality that they only have
a tiny bit of understanding of Scripture and theology, it's
sad and unfortunate. We in the Reformed, we have a
lot of good knowledge. May we pray for the zeal that
is consistent with it. And then thirdly, we have the
glory of Christ in the text. He doesn't rely on Peter and
he doesn't rely on the Father sending 12 legions of angels
to deliver him. The Lord Christ is resolved.
The Lord Christ set His face like a flint. The Lord Christ
is not going to be stopped in His pursuit of the salvation
of His people. He always acts according to the
Father's will as revealed in the Scriptures. Again, when he's
a young man and he's reading the prophet Isaiah, he is reading
what is in his future. He is reading the prophet Jeremiah,
he is reading Daniel 9, and he is reading and understanding
what is in his future. This is why he invokes or appeals
so often to this scripture is fulfilled motif because he is
consistent in obedience to the Father. He voluntarily surrenders
to the mob and he carries out the mission entrusted to him
by the father. Listen to one commentator. He
says, the narrative conveys sorrow through irony. Judas is no stranger
but one of the 12, verse 47. The crowd has swords and clubs,
verse 47. While the man they seek resists
not evil. While the man they seek resists
not evil, and Jesus' own disciples, instead of standing by him, forsake
him and flee. At the same time, the sorrow
is balanced by Jesus' authority and the motif of fulfillment.
The Messiah's fate is his own will. He decides not to ask for
legions of angels. Moreover, His resolution is determined
by the voice of the prophets, which is to say Jesus' will is
God's will. He conforms to what the Father
had given Him in that covenant of redemption to effect for us
the covenant of grace by going to these lengths to save us from
our sin. And before we close, we ought
to think of one other place in the scripture where we are told
to kiss the sun. We see the kiss of the betrayer
in this particular passage. But there is a passage in Psalm
2 wherein David calls upon the kings and the authorities around
Israel and says to them to kiss the sun. That kiss is not a kiss
of betrayal. That kiss is the kiss of faith.
That kiss is the kiss of homage. That kiss is the kiss of worship
and praise and adoration. So let us not be the betrayers
of Jesus with Judas' kiss, but the worshipers of Jesus, complying
with King David's instruction. And the end of that psalm is
most instructive. Psalm 2, verse 12 tells us, Kiss
the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his
wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put
their trust in him. There is a three-point sermon
in that text, and here I'm stealing, borrowing, plagiarizing. I guess
it's not plagiarizing if I tell you it's Spurgeon. There is first
of all a command, kiss the son. We are going to take the bread
and we are going to drink the cup because God has saved us
from our sins. If you are not able to take tonight
because God hasn't saved you from your sins, then listen to
David and kiss the sun. Believe on him. He is most glorious
and willing Savior for sinners. There is an argument in the text,
and that argument is, lest he be angry and you perish in the
way when his wrath is kindled but a little. So here's the command,
kiss the son. Here's the argument, lest he
be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled
but a little. We're heading to a time when
his wrath will be kindled a lot. We're heading to the final judgment.
We're heading to that day wherein we must give an account of deeds
done in the body, whether good or ill. We know for the righteous,
who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, who have been forgiven
of sin, they will go into the presence of God Almighty. They
will enjoy beatitude and blessing for all eternity. When we've
been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we've no
less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Do
you know that 10,000 years is chump change? It's a drop in
the bucket? When we talk about eternity? We can't even quantify it because
we have creatureliness running through us and it prohibits us
from understanding what it is to enter into eternity. So the
righteous enter into bliss, heaven, that wonderful place wherein
righteousness dwells and where Father, Son, and Spirit are.
But the wicked will be condemned. The wicked will be cast off.
We read it in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25. Depart from me, for
I never knew you, into hell which was prepared for the devil and
his angels. See, that's a good argument in
the text. Kiss the son. Why should I kiss
the son? Lest he be angry and you perish
in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Imagine
the wrath of God kindled a lot in that final judgment where
he deals out retribution on all those who know not God and on
those who do not obey the gospel. And then the third point of that
sermon is a benediction. A benediction is a good word. And it says, blessed are all
those who put their trust in Him. So the argument is, lest
he be angry. And then the benediction, the
positive argument is, blessed are all those who put their trust
in him. There's not blessedness outside
of Jesus. I mean, there may be a temporal
enjoyment of creaturely goods. You may have a nice steak. You
may have a glass of water. You may have a sunny day or a
rainy day or a day at the mountain, you know, to snowboard. There
are those temporal benefits that God in His grace and goodness
gives to His creatures as creatures. But blessedness, peace with God,
comes only through our Lord Jesus Christ. So listen to David. Listen to Spurgeon's handling
of David. The command, kiss the son. The
argument, lest he be angry and you perish in the way. And the
benediction, blessed are all those who put their trust in
him. That is where true blessedness lies. And again, as we eat this
bread, as we drink this cup, let us rejoice that we are blessed
in the beloved. And if you are not a believer,
kiss the son. Come to the Savior because blessed
are all those who put their trust in Him. Well, let us pray. Our
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this section. As scary, as terrifying as it
may be to see the disciples forsaking and fleeing from Jesus, to seeing
one of the twelve betraying Jesus, but it's such an encouragement
to see what our Lord went through on our behalf. His steadfastness,
His willingness to set His face like a flint, even to the very
end, even to bear the wrath and fury and judgment of God Almighty
on that cross. What a glorious Savior we serve. And certainly King David is right.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Lord, put
the fear of God in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls
here tonight. Give the graces of faith and
repentance so that sinners may kiss him and may find joy being
in the presence of that one who is altogether lovely, that one
who is chief among 10,000. And we pray in his wonderful
name, amen.
