Matthew 26:31-46 - Scattered Sheep Welcome

Good morning.

Those were some amazing words we just heard.

He must hold us fast, and he will hold us fast.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

If you're a guest with us this morning, I want to welcome you.

We go through books of the Bible here at New Hyde Park Baptist, and we have been working through the book of Matthew for three years now.

We are closing in maybe rapidly, but we are going to experience some delight this morning.

I hope you have come this morning looking for hope and looking for encouragement because our passage this morning is going to bring it in abundance.

We'll be looking at two sections from this chapter.

Section one appears in verse 31 to 35.

And I hope to be able to show us this morning this contrast that takes place between the word of the Lord and the word or the vow of the disciples.

And then in section two, we have a change of scenery as Jesus enters into the Garden of Gethsemane.

That's verses 36 to 46.

And here we are invited in to what is perhaps the most profound look at the humanity of Jesus in all of Scripture.

Our sermon has two points this morning.

Point number one, God's word prevails.

And point number two, the last Adam overcomes the flesh.

Please allow me to read our text for us this morning.

I will pray again and then we will get started.

The word of the Lord.

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.

But after I have risen I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

Peter told him, Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away.

Truly I tell you, Jesus said to him, Tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

Even if I have to die with you, Peter told him, I will never deny you.

And all the disciples said the same thing.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.

Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.

Remain here and stay awake with me.

Going a little further 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.

Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.

He asked Peter, So couldn't you stay awake with me one hour?

Stay awake and pray, so that you won't enter into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Again a second time he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open.

After leaving them he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?

See, the time is near.

The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Get up, let's go.

See, my betrayer is near.

Lord Jesus, we must be held by your word.

Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit would be working and moving.

I pray, as Brother Mike prayed this morning, Lord, that I would be out of the way and that it would be your word by your spirit that brings conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

I pray, Lord, for your people that they would receive a blessing of encouragement.

I pray for those that are burdened, that are distracted.

I pray, Lord, that you would invigorate their hearts and minds to receive what you have provided for them this morning, Lord.

And I pray that it would be for your glory in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In verse 31, we read, 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.

This is a very fitting introduction for Matthew, who has framed so much of his gospel in terms of fulfillment.

Jesus says, For it is written, this will happen, for it is written.

And here in chapter 26, Jesus identifies himself with the shepherd of Zechariah 13, and the fulfillment of the word of promise that God had delivered to the remnant of Israel in exile.

This word, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

And I think it would be of some benefit to us this morning to just take a brief look at the context of Zechariah 13.

So if you wouldn't mind, just keep your thumb in Matthew and turn back to Zechariah 13 for a moment.

Jesus and the New Testament authors, when they quote a passage from the Old Testament, they're not just proof texting, right?

When they are quoting a passage from the Old Testament, uh, they're not just grabbing a text that sort of fits uh the sound or the literary meaning that they're looking for.

What they are doing is they are capturing an entire section of scripture, and they are providing the proper interpretation of that section.

Indeed, it's often the case where Jesus and the New Testament authors, one authors, when they reference an Old Testament passage, they are directing the audience to recall the entire message that was delivered in that passage that they give.

Look what we have here in Zechariah 13.

Jesus is telling the disciples that this was written concerning himself and the events that will transpire that very night.

We read here in these first two verses.

On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the residents of Jerusalem to wash away sin and impurity.

On that day, this is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered.

I will banish the prophets and the unclean spirits from the land.

Then the passage goes on in verses three to six to talk about how this day of salvation, this day where there will be a cleansing from impurity, will also be a judgment against these false and unfaithful prophets.

The false shepherds deserve death.

They deserve to be pierced through, they are full of shame and dishonor.

And then in verse 7 to 8, it picks up again and it gets a little weird.

It seems here that we have God's shepherd, a faithful shepherd, but he is going to receive the same judgment that these false prophets deserve.

Look with me at verse 7 and 8.

Sword, awake against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.

I will turn my hand against the little ones.

In the whole land, this is the Lord's declaration.

Two-thirds will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in it.

You can turn back to Matthew.

This is a really rich text in Zechariah.

We don't have time to work through all of the details of it, but the connection here between verses one and two and seven to eight is simple enough.

The fountain for the house of David that will be opened to wash away sin and impurity will be the very substitutional death and judgment of God's appointed shepherd.

The Lord's faithful shepherd will stand in the place of judgment that the unfaithful rightly deserve, and he will receive in himself the shame and the judgment.

And so when Jesus quotes this section, he's not only noting what will be the scattering of the disciples, but he's also pointing them to consider the salvation through judgment that will occur as God's shepherd is struck.

An important note here is that the striking of the shepherd is not referring to some kind of assault, it's talking about death.

The fountain that will be opened, which purifies from sin, is his body.

And the promise for the purification from sin, this is part of a much broader hope and promise that God has been speaking of that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where man was first cut off and separated from God.

And Jesus wants to direct the disciples' thinking along these redemptive lines from Zechariah.

He wants them to interpret the events that will follow that evening through the lens of God's word.

And he essentially says, Tonight, tonight, the fulfillment of this hope for purification and sin is coming.

Tonight is the night.

But you will all fall away.

The disciples will fall away, but God's word will prevail.

Jesus will die the death of a sinner alone.

This must happen according to God's set plan and purpose.

Come back in Matthew 26 and look at verse 32.

Those who are scattered will then be welcomed back.

In verse 32, he says, But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

Now we're going to come back to this verse a little bit later in the sermon, but for now I really want us to see that this scattering of the disciples is not the last word.

The good shepherd will once again gather his sheep.

Jesus will rise, and the disciples will be with him in Galilee.

And then in verse 33 to 35, we can see this contrast set up between God's sure word of promise and the disciples' vow.

In verse 33, Peter told him, Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fail you, fall away.

And then in verse 35, even if I have to die with you, Peter told him, I will never deny you.

And all the disciples said the same thing.

These are noble words, these are good words.

But the disciples are unable to keep this vow.

God's word will prevail.

The disciples will scatter.

Peter will deny Jesus three times.

And this isn't the first time either in Scripture where we come across this kind of contrast between God's promise and man's promises.

We see this in other places.

In fact, we see this in the entire history of Israel, don't we?

If you can remember all the way back to Exodus 24, you have the people of Israel making a vow to be faithful to the Lord.

The people of Israel, after receiving the law from Moses, they declare as one people before God at Sinai, we will obey all the Lord commands.

Really?

All of it?

Rather than fall to their knees in humility and declaring, Lord, we are weak.

We cannot obey all that you have commanded.

You must keep us, you must hold us fast.

Instead, they cry out and promise, We will obey.

But Israel cannot keep this word.

Later on, Moses even tells them this expressly in a number of places.

They will fail.

God's word prevails.

The word of the Lord comes in Deuteronomy 30.

And he says, When all of these things happen to you, the blessings and the curses I have set before you, and you come to your senses while you are in the nations where the Lord your God has driven you.

The word of the Lord says, You will not obey this, you will be banished, you will be scattered.

And the promise is that when you are in these nations where you are scattered, and you and you return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today, then he will restore your fortunes, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

God's word prevails.

Man's promises do not.

Israel vows to obey God, God's word says they will not, they will be scattered.

Humanity's failure to keep covenant leads to scattering.

This happened in Eden.

This happened with Israel as they failed to follow the covenant and they were scattered from the land of promise.

This scattering, however, it is preceded by a merciful gathering, so that in Israel's failure and inability to keep the law, we can see the absolute necessity of God and God alone to produce faithfulness in his people, and God alone, who must keep his people.

And we see the same thing in our text this morning in Matthew.

We see here that the disciples they will fail to keep their vow.

But God does not.

God's word prevails.

They will be scattered, but Jesus will go before them, and they will be gathered again to the shepherd.

And just as sure as the sheep will scatter according to the word of the Lord, so too the sins of God's people will be washed away.

The assurance of this is grounded in the repetition we read from Zechariah 13.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

And friends, this should be enough for us that that would take away all doubt that our faith and our loyalty to Jesus is the result of our own decision making.

Our loyalty to Jesus is not a result of our promises.

It wasn't true of Israel.

It wasn't true of the disciples.

It is only God's word that will ever prevail.

Not our promises, not our vows, unless our faith is anchored to something outside of ourselves and tied directly to the word of God, it will crumble in an instant under pressure.

Now there's some really good application for us in this.

Look to Christ with humility.

Look to Christ knowing with absolute assurance that apart from his promise keeping, you would not only fall away, but you would run straight into the fires of hell.

If you could lose your salvation, you would have already done it by now, beloved.

Consider this: the first Adam did not even have a sin nature.

And he fell into sin to such a degree that he sided with the word of Satan over the word of God.

Friends, what chance do we have in our own power or strength to stay loyal to Jesus?

Look to Christ with humility to keep you.

If you are in Christ today, it is only because he is upholding you right this second by the power of his word.

Jude 1 24.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his presence without blemish and with great joy.

If you are in Christ, you did not become a follower of Christ by choosing him or by dedicating your life to Jesus.

He came to you first, he gathered you in.

John 6 37, everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

Or John 6 45, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

Brothers and sisters, he will ensure that all of his scattered sheep are brought in.

A few weeks ago we read this word from Matthew 24.

At the end of the age, he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other, Matthew 24, 31.

God's word prevails.

Friends, you won't keep that vow to love your wife or honor your husband in your own strength.

You won't keep that promise to never say those words again by your own self-discipline.

You won't put away that pornography because you really mean it this time.

But God's word will prevail.

He must cause our faithfulness.

And here's the really good news, beloved.

God's word does assure our holiness, that we can reach out to the Lord, we can cry out to him for his faithfulness.

Ephesians 1:4, for he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Ephesians 1:4

Now hear this: to be holy and blameless in love before him.

So look to Christ with humility, confessing your weaknesses to him.

Plead with him daily, hourly, to grow you in grace, to purify you.

Brothers and sisters, God answers prayer.

God gives grace to the humble.

Our prayers and our confession of weakness are an expression of our neediness and humility before God.

And he responds with more grace.

Moving on.

Following this exchange in verse 31 to 35, we now have the change of scenery.

In verse 36, Jesus takes the disciples into the garden of Gethsemane.

And what begins to unfold here is this struggle and this temptation in the garden that echoes the first battle in Scripture between God's will and man's will that occurred with Adam and Eve.

Point number two, the last Adam overcomes the flesh.

Three times in this section, Jesus directs the attention and the focus of the disciples.

He wants them to pay careful attention to what's going on.

He wants them to fully grasp what's going to be happening in this garden.

In verse 38, he brings the three and tells them specifically, stay awake.

Look what it says.

Pay attention.

Verse 41 Stay awake and pray, so that you won't enter into temptation.

The Spirit is willing to.

But the flesh is weak.

Here he adds, pray, stay awake and pray.

The significance of this moment is so great that to miss it means falling away into temptation.

The disciples will break their vow and flee.

And then finally, in verse 46, get up, let's go.

See, my betrayer is near.

He says, see or behold.

I love when God uses interjections.

He's commanding us and the disciples to focus in on something, to behold it.

There's a war going on in this moment.

Jesus is engaged in the greatest human struggle that has ever been, and he is going to overcome.

And again, with this contrast here, because in the battle against the flesh, the disciples cannot stand.

They sleep.

But Jesus does overcome.

And what's amazing here is that despite all the weakness of the disciples to stay awake and to take in the significance of the events in the moment, God still manages to preserve this for us.

We have a record here of how Jesus, in the darkest of hours, overcomes the flesh and submits himself to the Father's will in a way that no human being has ever done before.

He stands as a new Adam in the garden, facing an unimaginable temptation.

The last Adam overcomes the flesh.

And all before Jesus have failed.

Adam failed, Noah failed, Israel fails, the disciples fail, but Jesus will overcome.

Let me try to help us to wrap our heads around this for just a bit.

Matthew is connecting Jesus here to the first Adam by setting up this battle in terms of man's will versus God's will.

What was at stake in the battle of the first garden was whether all of humanity would remain in God's presence and fellowship.

What is at stake in this battle of the last Adam is whether God's people will remain alienated from his presence forever or be brought back into fellowship with God.

In other words, what's taking place in Gethsemane is the very reversal of Eden.

One Bible commentator has said it this way.

Now, this quote is rather difficult to follow, but I'm going to read it slowly.

See if you can get this.

In the first garden, not your will but mine changed paradise to desert and brought man from Eden to Gethsemane.

Now, not my will but yours brings anguish to the man who prays it, but transforms the desert into the kingdom and brings man from Gethsemane to the gates of glory.

Isn't that wonderful?

We could read here in verse 37 to 38 that Jesus is indeed experiencing tremendous grief, even to the point of death.

Look what it says.

It says, He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.

You may have a note in the margin of your CSB here.

Literally translated, he's saying, My soul is swallowed up in sorrow.

And we need to ask, what is this grief?

Is it just the stress of the impending physical torture and crucifixion to come?

I don't think it is.

That may be part of it, perhaps, but there are far greater elements at work here in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus' grief includes the pain of having his beloved disciples abandon him.

He knows the physical suffering will come.

It will be immense, but the humiliation, the rejection, the abandonment by those whom he came to save is deeply sorrowful.

And to be sure, this isn't Jesus' first introduction to sorrow.

No doubt the scandal of his birth, we imagine, resulted in mockery and humiliation.

Then, of course, there was the rejection by the Jewish leaders, the slander.

Jesus' suffering doesn't begin here, but it's certainly beginning to reach critical mass.

Here in the final hour, his closest disciples are going to abandon him.

He will face death utterly alone.

But we need to go even further.

We also need to consider Jesus' grief in relation to the Father.

This cup that Jesus will drink is God's wrath.

This is the cup from passages like Jeremiah and Isaiah in Jeremiah 25.

We read, This cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it.

Or in Isaiah 51, the cup of his fury from the Lord's hand.

This is the cup prepared for wicked and evil men who despise and blaspheme the Lord.

This is the cup for those that shake their fist at God and trample his law.

This is the cup that I deserve.

Beloved, this is the cup that we all deserve.

Yet here in the garden, Jesus is going to resist every impulse of his flesh in order to submit himself to take this cup, which he does not deserve, for an unworthy people who do deserve it.

Three times he collapses in prayer.

Verse 39 My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.

Here's the first thing they teach you everybody breaks.

Everybody cracks.

Pain and fatigue and isolation make cowards of us all.

Everyone cracks under the mental and physical stress.

It's often the isolation that does the most damage.

The goal of torture training is not to keep you from breaking, but to try and help you to delay the inevitable.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

What was he tempted with in these moments?

They don't love you, Jesus?

You don't deserve this.

God is still glorified in their judgment.

Give them justice.

This sin is too great for one man.

Surely there must be an alternative.

Look, we don't have all the details of the war that's going on in the soul of Jesus here.

Luke's gospel brings this out in a little more detail.

He describes Jesus as sweating droplets of blood and needing to be strengthened by angels.

And yet he stays the course.

The sins of all of God's people are going to be placed onto Christ, calling to remembrance this imagery of the Old Testament where the high priest lays his hand on the scapegoat and pronounces the sins of Israel onto it before sending it out into the wilderness and the realm of the dead alone.

The weight of sin being placed onto the Christ is crippling.

The eternal Son, who was with the Father from the beginning, Jesus understands the holiness of God far better than you or I, beloved.

We make light of sin, we minimize it.

And that's because we make little of God.

We don't rightly understand the gravity of sin because we do not rightly see the one whom we have sinned against.

But Jesus does.

What horror and agony of being scorned and judged by the Father.

What pain to be forsaken.

We are often reminded of the effects of sin in our life.

Every time we bury a loved one or visit someone sick in the hospital, when we see broken homes, divorce, shattered relationships.

But even in all of this, we can only grasp at a portion of the weight of sin against the holy God.

And Jesus knows exactly how vile and weighty and wretched even a single sin is because he fully knows the Father.

It was a single sin which threw all of humanity into misery and judgment.

It was a single sin that separated us from the beauty and the goodness of God's presence.

How much worse to have the totality of the sin of God's people to bear on his soul, the soul of the man Christ Jesus?

In weakness he pleads with the Father for another way.

Was there another way?

Was there another way to bring sinners into true and lasting fellowship with the Father?

And the answer is no.

No.

There was no other way.

What the first Adam lost, only the last Adam could restore.

The last Adam must overcome the flesh in order to then overcome sin and death at the cross.

Brothers and sisters, the cross is necessary.

Without the cross, we would never grasp the love and the mercy of God that says, I will give myself for you.

But hear me carefully here.

Jesus' death on the cross is not in itself sufficient to bring you into God's presence.

Just hear me out.

Jesus' death is part one of a whole redemption.

Our salvation is both from sin and to the Lord.

Jesus taking the wrath of God, which our sins deserve, saves us from sin and judgment.

But it is the perfection of Jesus' life, his perfect law-keeping, his undefiled obedience to the Father's will that earns a holiness and a righteousness that is required to stand in God's presence.

Hebrews 12:14, without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

Without the cross, we would never know the wisdom of the holy God, who is both just and justifier, who upholds his justice and holiness in forgiving sin.

But without the last Adam overcoming the flesh in the garden, you would have no righteousness.

You would have no faithful obedience before God.

Because he cried out, yet not as I will, but as you will.

You, if you are in Christ, are now credited with the holiness and righteous obedience of the last Adam.

That is good news.

And the question for us is: do you want to live according to the first Adam or the last Adam?

Do you want to be less about yourself and your will and your preferences?

Are you tired, beloved?

Well, if so, then this is wonderful news for us.

Because this same Christ who overcomes the flesh in the garden is the same Christ who poured out the Spirit for you and who now sits on his throne to hear your prayers and to intercede for you.

And so I implore you, by the mercies of God, to look to Christ in such a way that you continually lean into him in order to resist the flesh and submit yourself to the will of the Father.

Romans 8, 12 to 13.

So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Look to Christ with hope, knowing that in Christ we have the power to now set aside our own wills.

You are no longer a slave to the carnal flesh that makes your wants and your preferences and your desires the master.

In the day-to-day minutia of life, in all of the little decisions and choices that we make, we can now ask ourselves, what is the Father's will?

And in Christ, by the power of the second and the final Adam, we are free to submit ourselves to the Father's will.

Friends, to do that, we need to be about this book.

We need to know the will of the Father, and we need to look to Christ with hope.

And this brings me to our final application point.

Now, many of you are going to think, well, of course, Kevin's going to go down this direction.

He's the mission guy.

But follow along with me here.

I want you to see this in the text.

This final application point is coming back to verse 32.

Meet the resurrected Lord in his mission.

He says in verse 32, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

Jesus knows the disciples will fail to keep their vow.

He knows they will succumb to the flesh.

But he dies so that not only will his people be free from the wrath of God, but so that they will be free from the bondage of the flesh, which has corrupted the image of God since the first Adam.

And now I'm using this term image of God here, not so much as a title for humanity, but as a commission, as a responsibility.

Back in Genesis 1, it reads, They were made in the image of God so that the reason is given, so that they might rule and subdue the creation.

Effectually, Adam and Eve were tasked with representing the heavenly king on earth and carrying out his will as it is in heaven, filling the earth with the knowledge of God and with faithful worshipers.

After Jesus makes atonement for the sins of his people, he will rise and he will meet the disciples in Galilee.

And this is significant.

I mean, it's significant because, of course, Jesus first met the disciples in Galilee, but it's significant because Galilee is tied into this mission of God, this commission of God to see the gospel spread into all the world.

Matthew is going to be working out this movement in his gospel that takes us to the mountain of Galilee.

In Matthew 28, verses 9 and 10, after the resurrection, just as he said, Jesus met them and said, Greetings.

Matthew 28:9

They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.

Then Jesus told them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.

Then again in Matthew 28, 16, the eleven disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

Verse 18.

Jesus came near and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, the perfect image of God Jesus Christ.

All authority to rule and to subdue.

And he commissions these redeemed sheep.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This connection between Galilee and the mission of God is rooted not only in Matthew's gospel in this movement, but also in the Old Testament.

In Matthew 4, if you remember where Jesus goes into Galilee and begins his ministry, he goes into Galilee preaching the good news of the gospel.

And Matthew says in verse 14 and 16 of chapter 4, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulon, land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

Galilee is the gateway to the Gentiles, to the nations.

And not only did Jesus fulfill this by bringing a light to the nations with his own life, but by the overcoming of his flesh in the garden and the cleansing from sin at the cross, this means that his people are now restored to the image of God.

They are able to fulfill the purpose of God for humanity.

Paul and Barnabas, they pick up on this.

They see themselves as fulfilling this mission of Jesus.

They boldly declare that having already proclaimed the gospel to the Jews, they will now go to the Gentiles.

And they say this in Acts 13, verse 47 to 48.

Acts 13:47–48

For this is what the Lord has commanded us.

Now, now he's speaking of the Old Testament here.

I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Friends, we are gathered up into Christ that we might meet the resurrected Lord in his mission.

He has saved us.

He has given us a restored nature, that we might be a light to the nations.

We are saved for service.

We are not saved to be only consumers of Christian ministry.

We are saved to live out this mission of the last Adam.

And this includes everything from sweeping floors in our local church to serving in various ministries, to counseling others, encouraging those that are weak, sitting with those who mourn.

Whatever it is, we are to meet the resurrected Lord in his mission, beloved.

We are saved for service.

Point number one God's word prevails.

Number two, the last Adam overcomes the flesh.

Brothers and sisters, we must look to Christ with humility.

Our faith and our faithfulness must be grounded in his word, not our own efforts or promises.

We must look to Christ with hope, because he has overcome the flesh.

We have been freed to lay aside our wills.

Look to Christ pleading with the Lord to conform your hearts to the will of the Father alone.

And finally, meet the resurrected Lord in his mission, looking to Christ with humility and with hope.

We must meet the resurrected Lord in his mission to be a light to all nations.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, we rejoice knowing that the Christ came when we, like sheep, had gone our own way and wandered, and we rejoice that you have brought us.

We rejoice, Lord, that our faith rests in you and you alone and not in ourselves.

Lord, I pray that this word would be sealed in our hearts.

I pray that your people would be benefited by this word, that you would bless your people this morning, Lord.

And I pray, Lord, that we would be drawn into pleading with you for greater and greater faithfulness, Lord, that we might serve you and glorify you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.