Matthew 26:47-56 - Obedient to Death

Take our Bible and go over to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

For those of you that are just visiting with us or just shortly with us, we're going through the Gospel of Matthew and we're reaching the end.

We started this in January two years ago.

We'll be going through the Gospel of Matthew, probably through September.

Passage that we're going to be looking at today begins in verse 47.

Verse 47.

Let me read this to as we go through it together.

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, suddenly arrived.

A large mob with swords and clubs was with him, from the chief priest and elders of the people.

His betrayer had given them a sign.

The one I kiss, he's the one.

Arrest him.

So immediately he went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, rabbi, and kissed him.

Friend, Jesus asked him, Why have you come?

Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested him.

At that moment one of those who with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword.

He struck the high priest's servant and cut off his ear.

Then Jesus told him, Put your sword back into its place, because all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword.

Or do you think that I cannot call on my father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels?

How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?

At that time Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal to capture me?

Every day I used to sit teaching in the temple, and you didn't arrest me.

But all this happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.

Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.

Think with me for just a moment as to why this is peculiar.

Kings.

Kings are not supposed to surrender.

Kings are not supposed to surrender through their enemy without a fight.

Yeah, sure, kings might retreat, they might be outnumbered, they might be outmatched by their foes, but eventually they return to the battlefield, rallying their troops, bringing in their reinforcements.

They might lose the war.

They might lead their army into certain death, but they don't just give themselves up, at least not without exacting some toll on their opponents.

And if a king was to lose his kingdom in battle, at least he'd die trying to save it.

Better to die fighting as a king than to just turn your nation over and become a slave.

This king, Jesus, rather than retreating from his opponents, goes out to greet them.

This king, rather than rallying his supporters, assumes that they're going to desert him.

This king, rather than have his faithful men fight, and he stands back in the castle waiting, wondering for news to see if his people and his kingdom are safe and secure.

No, this king gives himself up to be the good news, to be condemned and crucified.

This king, rather than launching a counterattack, this king surrenders.

This king, rather than killing his enemies, is anointed to be the one to die for those enemies.

This morning, as we look at this passage of scripture, we're going to discover a king who conquers his enemies and rules the world like no other king in this world has ever done.

And we'll learn that our acceptance and our participation in his kingdom means that we must accept him as king, and we must follow the pattern of him as king as we participate in his kingdom.

And so this morning I want us to look at four points.

And the first is this that this king goes on a scriptural mission.

This king goes on a scriptural mission.

This king, Jesus, follows a divine script that establishes the eternal kingdom of heaven on this troubled earth.

And when you read this passage and its surrounding context in the rest of the chapter, something significant out of the early pages of Matthew comes in with a flourish into this chapter.

Take a look with me at some things here.

Go to verse 24 for a second.

Matthew 26, verse 24.

Matthew 26:24

The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.

Just mark that phrase as it is written about him.

Then drop down to verse 31.

Then Jesus said to them, Tonight all of you will fall away because of me.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Then go to verse 53 with me.

Do you think that I cannot call on my father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels?

How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that says that it must happen this way?

Well, let's keep reading.

Verse 55.

At that time Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal to capture me?

Every day I used to sit teaching in the temple and you didn't arrest me.

But all of this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.

Something from the early pages of Matthew has come back into Matthew's writing.

What we have here at the end of Matthew is the way that Matthew started the gospel.

In the opening four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, he says, seven different times.

All of this took place to fulfill what was said through the prophet.

Chapter 1 and verse 22, chapter 2 in verse 5, chapter 2 in verse 15, chapter 2 in verse 17, chapter 2 in verse 23, chapter 3 and verse 3, chapter 4 and verse 14, seven times in three and a half chapters.

There, Matthew talks about the fulfillment.

Here, Jesus talks about the fulfillment.

There, all of the passages in reference to the prophets were very specific.

You could go to a verse and see it there in the life of Jesus.

Here, Jesus broadens it all.

The prophets.

It's as if Jesus is saying, take what all the prophets have written, converge together all the things that they've been saying, and you're going to find in this me and what's happening to me in this final week of my life and my ministry.

What Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 17.

He said, Don't think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

He is now acting out.

Later, Paul would look back on the life of Jesus, and he said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1, he said, All the promises of God find their yes and their amen in Jesus.

And here Jesus is saying exactly the same thing.

All the promises of God find their yes and amen in him.

All of them?

Is Jesus the Son of Man of Daniel 7?

Yes.

Is Jesus the new covenant that Jeremiah proclaimed?

Yes.

Is Jesus the suffering servant of Isaiah?

Yes.

Is Jesus the forsaken and mocked king of Psalm 22?

Yes.

Yes, he is.

And so we see this king resolved to go on a scriptural mission, to go to the cross because he knows it's the will of God.

He knows it's the will of God because he knows the scriptures.

The Bible speaks of him, the Messiah.

It speaks of his suffering.

It speaks of his resurrection.

It speaks of his exaltation.

It speaks of him as the central focus of God's redemptive plan.

So when we read the Hebrew Bible, Jesus is telling us that we should be seeing the Messiah there.

We should see him in the story of Scripture.

You see, Jesus roots his whole life and ministry and all of that, in all of the prophets, in all the priests, in all the kings, saints, and sinners that we find in Scripture.

Scott McKnight said this: the story of Jesus Christ isn't a story that just pops out of nowhere, like the Book of Mormon.

It's not some timeless set of ideas as if like Plato's philosophical writings.

No, the story of Jesus is locked into one people, one history, one scripture.

And the life of Jesus can only make sense as it follows and completes the story of the people of Israel.

Here's our king, Jesus, on a scriptural mission, saying that his mission is fulfillment of the Old Testament.

So how can we share the gospel of this king, the good news that he saves, if we don't know the Hebrew Bible?

Remember what Paul said.

I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you stand and by which you're being saved.

What is it, Paul?

For I delivered to you, first of all, as of first importance, what I also received.

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

What Paul is emphasizing is what Jesus is saying.

Without the Old Testament, there's no understanding of Jesus.

With no understanding of Jesus, there's no understanding of the good news.

Without the understanding of the good news, there is no hope for us or for anyone else.

What is this good news that we herald?

Exactly what the people of Israel in the scriptures were pointing toward, to this Messiah who would come.

The gospel is this saving story of Israel, lived out by the true Israel, who was obedient to the Father, and yet who was dead and buried on the behalf of others, so that in his exaltation he might bring his people with him into an everlasting kingdom.

This is a scriptural mission that Jesus is on.

But let's look at how it takes shape.

The second thing we see is it's a submissive mission.

Last week, Kevin took us through the passage that detailed Christ's struggles with his impending death and taking on the judgment of sinners on his sinless self.

We call it Gethsemane.

Matthew, along with the other synoptic gospels, describe this period of time where Jesus affirms his complete commitment to God and yet also struggles with the horror of what it means to die the death of crucifixion.

In one of those telling verses, Matthew shows us that agonizing obedience as he submits himself to the will of the Father.

Verse 39.

Going a little farther, he fell face down and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Yet not as I will, but as you will.

He knew that was coming.

Yet it pleased the Lord to crush him severely and to make him a guilt offering.

Jesus knew that was coming.

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, we listen to Jesus' genuine anguish, and yet we also feel the strength of his obedience as he conforms his life in submission to the will of the Father.

Now, John's gospel doesn't record Gethsemane like Matthew and Mark and Luke do.

But he does show us Jesus' submission to God's plan in John 12.

He said, The hour is come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

And truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself.

But if it dies it produces much fruit.

The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

Where I am there my servant will also be.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

And then he says this, now my soul is troubled.

What should I say?

Father, save me from this hour.

No.

That is why I came to this hour.

To fall to the ground and die.

It's this purpose, this submission to the plan of God that we see here in this passage of Scripture.

And so when we read what we're the passage that we're in, when Jesus speaks to Peter, he says, Peter, put away your sword.

Put your sword away, Peter.

Do you think I can't call on my father and here and now?

Have him send me legions, twelve legions of angels.

Jesus here talks about the confidence of his person, but he also talks about his willingness not to be using the prerogatives of that position.

This is why we read Philippians 2 this morning.

You see, a legion was, well, close to six thousand men.

Jesus was saying he could have called easily 70 plus thousand angels.

In the Old Testament, one of them killed over a hundred thousand men.

I think that small band that was behind Judas probably wasn't going to be much of a fight for them.

And for a moment, Peter and his fellow companions are ready to take up arms.

Luke records it.

Luke 22, when those around him saw what was going to happen, they asked, Lord, should we strike with the sword?

And Peter, of course, didn't wait for an answer.

He's just slices off part of an ear.

Impetuous Peter, ready to jump in before an answer is even given, Peter.

But Jesus responds, No more of this.

Why?

Why does he tell Peter put his sword back?

How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that says it can happen?

It has to happen this way.

As he submits himself.

This is a scriptural mission that Jesus submits himself to.

And he tells Peter, all those who live by the sword, well, they die by the sword.

What is Jesus saying here?

The way of the world is to assert its will.

The way of the world is to assert its will on others by way of force and power and violence necessarily.

And the way of the world is to retaliate violence with violence.

And the consequences of that is you end up losing with the same weapons that were waged against you and by you.

What is Jesus saying here?

He's saying his kingdom is a submissive kingdom.

He's saying that he and his people do not fight with the weapons of the world and their warfare.

They do not fight with a spirit of vengeance or revenge.

Spurgeon put it this way: He said, A godly man's hand is never more out of place when it's on the sword hilt.

He said, Yet there's always a tendency, even among Christians, to draw the sword from its scabbard.

And here Jesus is rejecting the notion that God's will is going to be advanced or imposed upon others by way of violent means.

Our allegiance is to this king, this king who goes on a scriptural mission, this king who submissively gives himself to that mission.

And he's calling us to a submissive mission by following him, by following the goals of the kingdom of God.

And this is why the Apostle Paul said, we don't wage war with the weaponry of this world.

But our weapons of righteousness are mighty, powerful from God for the pulling down of strongholds.

What are those weapons of righteousness?

Love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and meekness and kindness and self-control.

Those are the weapons of warfare.

My missions professor was a missionary in Pakistan, and he was watching a religious ceremony in which men would cut themselves with blades, knives and razors, whips, and they would go into this pool of dank green water and come out of it without blood on them.

And they walked over to him and said, Can your God do this?

And he said, My God can do something far greater.

My God can change a hard man's heart into a soft one.

My God can take a hateful man and make him loving.

My God can make a disturbed soul peaceful.

Can you get that out of the water?

Jesus has come to carry out God's plan of redemption in Scripture.

And he's come to do it in a submissive way.

Unless we think it's only for him.

Listen to what Peter, remember?

Peter, the funk, Peter.

Submit to every human authority because of the Lord.

Whether to the emperor's supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish the to do what is evil and praise those who do what is good.

Why?

For it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by cutting off their ear.

No, by doing good.

Submit as free people.

Not using your freedom as a cover up for evil as God's slaves.

Honor everyone.

I honor everyone.

Love the brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the emperor.

For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

He did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.

And when he was insulted, he did not insult in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

Submission.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that having died to sins, we might live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed.

You were like sheep going astray, but now you've returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls, who said, Arrest me.

What do we see in this passage?

We see King Jesus on a mission, a scriptural mission, a submissive mission, a sincere mission.

And that's our third point.

While Jesus is in the garden here, we witness the return of Judas.

Verse 47, take a look at that with me.

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, suddenly arrived.

He's come to execute the plan that he's made with the religious leaders of the day in order to gain temporary possession of the blood money that he had negotiated.

He secures a band of soldiers from the chief priests and the Pharisees.

He leads them to where Jesus is alone, away from all the crowds, and he kisses Jesus in order to identify him for the soldiers.

This Judas.

Who is this Judas?

Well, he was the treasurer of the apostolic band.

We have to assume that he had some positive characteristics about his life, right?

It's not a job you give to just anybody.

Because when Jesus said in the upper room, one of you is going to betray me, they all didn't go, well, hey, we know who that is.

They asked about themselves.

So Judas's reputation must have seemed dedicated.

It might have even seemed sincere, but the reality was it was all a sham.

Every bit of it.

According to John, Judas' objection to Mary's anointing of Jesus with costly ointment was not because he was concerned about the poor, but because of his greed.

Why?

Because we find in John 12 and verse 6 that he was dipping his hand into the money bag.

He was taking for his own personal profit the treasury funds.

And Jesus indicates in other places that Judas never really did believe in him, but only appeared to be as if he did.

And so to the sin of greed and covetousness, there's also the sin of deceit and hypocrisy.

Jesus had offered him a relationship.

Jesus had given him an intimate life next to him.

Jesus had pronounced a role for him.

But Jesus was abused by Judas because Judas manipulated that relationship and manipulated that position for his own purposes.

And now in the ultimate display of hypocrisy, verse 47.

He arrives and what does he do?

Greetings, Rabbi.

Verse 49.

And kisses him.

Luke records Jesus asking him a question.

Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?

There's not one record of any of the other apostles kissing Jesus.

Here's the one place where that sign of acceptance and love and friendship is offered in hypocrisy.

The CSB says, Why have you come?

NIV puts it a little different.

Do what you've come for.

There's a question about which way this phrase should be translated.

Both ways have equal import, I think.

It's hard to know exactly which way to go with it.

Why have you come echoes those words in the Garden of Eden, here in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Adam, Adam, where are you?

Judas, where are you?

Why have you come here?

But also this do what you came for means Jesus' submission to God's directions through the Passion Week.

And Judas is a part of that, violating this most sacred, privileged relationship with the Messiah, scorning Christ, taking advantage of his love and his friendship, manipulating his friends, manipulating even his enemies to advance his own goals.

Judas was never really Christ's.

He fell away from his apostleship and never, never returned.

He's called the son of perdition.

He's lost.

The highest accolade he could give to Christ was rabbi, never Lord.

He lives here on the stage of Scripture as a warning to us of uncommitted followers of Jesus who share company with Christ and his people, but don't share in the spirit of Christ or of his kingdom.

Judas leaves the gospel story a little bit later, a doomed and damned man because of the hardness of his heart.

But there's something else here.

There's Jesus.

He submitted himself to that kiss.

Why?

Because I think when he called Judas friend, he meant it.

He could have recoiled and stepped back, but he didn't.

And when he is arrested, he submits himself to that.

He has something to say about it, but he submits himself and he says to these men who do this, have you come out to me with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal to capture me?

Every day I used to sit teaching in the temple and you didn't arrest me.

Why have you come this way?

Why have you come in the middle of the night?

Why have you come to this solitary spot?

Why have you come with clubs and swords?

Why have you come this way when you could have easily arrested me in the temple?

Why?

Because they were not sincere men.

And why does Jesus make this point?

Because he was sincere.

He was who he was in the temple.

He is who he is in the garden.

He is sincere all the way through.

He hasn't changed a bit.

He wasn't being something in his public teaching and doing something different in a closet.

There was complete transparency about him.

What he was in public is what he was in private.

He wasn't putting on a public face, all the while plotting something different.

There were no plans of subversion underneath everything he was saying.

The religious leaders couldn't counter his teaching, so they drum up an idea that he's actually about being subversive.

He's head to this temple, destroy it in three days.

Jesus says, Do you really think I'm leading a rebellion?

Of course they didn't.

They just wanted him gone.

And in verse 50, it says they take a hold of him.

The idiom there is translated in other versions.

They laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

Right?

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus lays hands on people to heal them.

But here he allows these men to lay their hands on him to kill them.

Why would the one who laid hands on people to heal them allow sinful hands to lay hands, their those hands on him so he could heal them in a different way?

He goes into the hands of sinners so that he could open up wide his hands to save.

This is Jesus.

He's on a scriptural mission, he's on a submissive mission, he's on a sincere mission.

And tragically, for every single one of us, it is a solitary mission.

Take a look at verse 56.

All this happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.

Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.

These trembling disciples had looked to Jesus for strength and leadership, but now he's arrested and they've got nowhere to go.

Jesus just a little bit earlier in the evening had promised a comforter who would come and be with them.

Where's their clinging to the hope of that anywhere?

All of them flee.

And Peter, you know, whack, Peter runs.

And he hides.

He cowers at the questions of a little girl.

Even after the resurrection, these men are in an upper room hiding for fear of their lives.

These are the men that have been called by Christ to be his ambassadors in the kingdom.

But they don't understand Jesus and they don't understand the kingdom.

Not yet.

Not yet.

They don't understand that he's come to give himself up to death to save a lost and dying world.

But as Jesus is led away to that death, all of their hope dies.

They haven't understood it yet.

Jesus has refused to retaliate with force.

He's refused the sword, and he's made his disciples vulnerable.

After he's arrested, they run away.

What Jesus had been proclaiming to them should have caused them to have some sense of confidence and hope.

Perhaps even to stand firm in the face of this arrest.

But they don't.

And once again, in Jesus' greatest time of personal need, when he needs support the most, his closest followers desert him.

And he faces the cross alone.

Like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, Jesus goes off to his destiny alone.

That solitude of Gethsemane gets all the more quiet.

Alone.

When we read the Gospel of Matthew, we run into all kinds of different characters.

Judas, Peter, later we'll read about Pilate, Caiaphas, crowds demanding the blood of Christ, the rest of the disciples.

All of them, Matthew ushers onto the stage before us in order to show us a contrast and comparison to Jesus.

All of them fail the responsibilities that are put before them in their life.

All of their motives for service are just human-derived motivations to achieve success, and every one of them fail.

But there's one solitary life who maintains that scriptural, divine mission, Jesus.

And though his ultimate end seems to be one of failure here, it's not.

It's success.

You see, Jesus is not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

His purpose to coming to this earth was to be that lone savior.

Isaiah 53, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.

He was like some someone people turned away from.

He was despised, and we didn't value him.

John writes that in John 1.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.

Zechariah 13, smite the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.

They did.

Why?

Why this one man?

Isaiah 40 59.

Justice is turned back, and righteousness is standing afar off.

Truth is stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil is plundered.

The Lord saw that there was no justice, and he was offended.

He saw that there was no man.

He was amazed there was no one interceding.

Why is Jesus alone here?

Because Isaiah 59 says this.

So his own arm brought salvation, and his own righteousness supported him.

He put on righteousness as body armor and a helmet of salvation on his head, and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

This is Jesus alone, the one obedient man, the one obedient Israel alone.

No one next to him to receive the credit.

No one saying, I did part of it to get any of the credit.

Isaiah 63.

I looked and there was no one to help.

And I was amazed that no one assisted.

So my arm accomplished victory for me.

Isaiah 41, when I looked, there was no one, there was no counselor among them.

When I asked them, they had nothing to say.

God speaks from his heavenly throne to the universe and says, Can any of you save yourselves?

No.

No, we can't.

More likely, no, we won't.

Ezekiel 22.

Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things.

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, destroying lives.

Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations.

The people have practiced extortion and committed robbery, they've oppressed the poor and needy.

I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it, but I found no one except for Jesus, so that we would not be destroyed.

John took up this scene in heaven and wrote it for us.

In Revelation 5, I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it.

I wept and I wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even look in it.

And then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep, do not weep.

Look, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, is conquered so that he is able to open the scroll in its seven seals.

Jesus alone, a solitary mission, a solitary mission.

What is this passage teaching us?

This Jesus goes on a scriptural mission, this Jesus who goes on a submissive mission, this Jesus who in sincerity progresses through this mission, this Jesus who goes alone.

Why?

Why?

Because this is what the prophets have spoken about.

Because there was only one who could save, and that was God Himself.

And here He is, fulfilling His own word, submitting to His own divine plan, sincerely bringing life to sinners, and can speak.

To anyone as guilty as Judas, friend, friend.

And he did it alone.

The first point here is accept this Savior who brings the kingdom.

Accept him.

Like all the other characters that we've already met and will meet throughout this passion week.

We, just like them, in our understanding, in our allegiance, in our commitment, in our ability, were not consistent or constant at all.

Not a one of us.

Every one of us failed the test of faithfulness.

And it's more than a weakness of ability, it's a moral stubbornness.

We're too self-absorbed.

We're too willing to save ourselves.

We're too fixed on our own comfort.

We're too captured by offered pleasures.

We're too swayed by other people's opinions.

We're too dulled to the determinations of God who is holy and thus wholly different than we are.

But here's the good news.

There's a savior who's come to save us.

To look every single Judas one of us in the eye and say, friend.

Say, friend.

A Savior who's denied himself of all the comforts, denied himself the prerogatives of power and position, who's denied himself from all the temptations to satiate even the cravings of his body.

I thirst, who set aside the invitation to eat after several days of fasting, who resisted the temptations to question God's goodness or to presume upon God's protection.

He set his face toward Jerusalem.

Why?

To save us.

That's why.

When none of us could stand, when there was no one who could be found, there was one who came to seek and to save.

That's Jesus.

Embrace him.

Embrace the Savior.

And if you've already embraced the Savior, follow this puzzling king.

Follow this one who does what no other king has ever done.

This one who conquers through death.

This one who is victorious through submission.

Embrace the Savior and His sufferings and his submission and even his solitary kingdom.

As the writer of Hebrews said, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Engage this kingdom.

Engage its scriptural mandates, engage its submissive call, engage its drive to sincerity, engage it even when you're alone.

Peter said, I'll never deny you.

But he did.

And he had to learn that discipleship was going to mean something.

It was going to mean a complete reordering of who he was, as he lost confidence in himself and embraced the Savior.

And in embracing the Savior, he could throw away the sword and take up the weapon of submission.

And he says this in 1 Peter 4 Since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding.

Because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin, in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer to human desires, but for God's will.

Peter learns a big lesson.

And so he says in chapter 5 these words, and we'll finish with this.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up.

Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

Be self-controlled and alert.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Resist him, not with a sword, but standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you've suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

Why?

To him be the power forever and ever.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, what an intriguing, puzzling world-upturning passage we've just looked at.

Because we have a record here of a king like no other who accomplishes in what seems to be his utter defeat the victory for eternity.

Father, we pray that all of us might understand this better.

That all of us might understand Christ better.

That all of us here would not leave this place without having a relationship with this King Jesus.

That we would cast all of our soul upon him because he's the only one that has stood up when the rest of us all ran away.

And I pray, Father, that we as your people might not be caught by the wafting winds of temptation to bear the sword with vengeance or retaliation like the world does.

That we would not run away from the rich reward of Christ by grabbing a dole and bloodied knife of revenge.

I pray, Father, that we would recognize that we're called to walk in the footsteps of our Savior, and that his kingdom is advanced in ways that no one can understand or appreciate.

It is by the foolishness of preaching that people are saved.

It is in the weak things that the powerful are overthrown.

It's in the foolish things where the wise are confounded.

Pray, Father, that we might continue as your people to embrace that, to embrace our Savior, to embrace his kingdom, and to embrace the weapons of warfare that are not carnal.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.