Why We Fail (Luke 22:39-71, Jeff Kliewer)

Samson’s Failure and Human Weakness

Didn't have enough strength to restrain his own flesh. His fall with Delilah, his fall into temptation, and then his being captured was owed to the fact that he relied on his own strength. And in the end, that weakness to the flesh resulted in him having his eyes gouged out.

Recall that Jesus said that it'd be better if you had your eye gouged out than for you to lose your soul. Well, Samson literally had his eyes gouged out. What lesson can we learn from Samson? Well, as strong as you might be, you are powerless in yourself to resist your own flesh and to resist the world and to resist the devil.

Our only power, our only hope of triumph, our only victory is in Christ the Lord. We think of Paul as an example of a triumphant Christian. He was persecuted, beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead, and no matter what was thrown at him, he trusted in Christ and he moved on victorious from one triumph to the next.

The picture of Paul in the New Testament is a bit daunting. I know it is for me. When I see his level of faith and the way he relies on God, I often feel, wow, I fall so far short of that. And recall that Paul said, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.

Paul seems almost otherworldly in terms of his obedience to God and his reliance on the Spirit. But there's one character in the New Testament that we tend to relate to a little more easily because we see him stumbling and fumbling and bumbling, and we'll see it in the text today.

Peter’s Boldness Before His Fall

His name is Peter. Very often, he falls short. And yet, he's an example for us of one who does, in the end, learn to rely upon the Spirit, rely upon Christ and not in his own flesh. Last week, we studied about his bold proclamation that even if trials come and even if everybody abandons Jesus, Peter says, I am ready to go with you to death.

And Jesus answers him in the famous words, before the rooster crows, you will deny that you even know me three times. Today, we read that sad failure of Peter, but I don't want us to just read it like, hey, we're studying characters, Samson and Paul and Peter.

Rather, I want us to look into the text and let the text cut us and say, who am I in this story? I'm not the Savior in this story. I'm Peter who needs the rock, Jesus Christ. So we won't read through the entire thing because we're a little short on time today.

Instead, what I'll do is I will read and then preach on that little segment as we go through. We're going to begin in Luke 22, verse 39 and following. It's a story of laziness, unpreparedness, trusting in oneself rather than trusting in God.

When we fail, we're like Peter. We rely on ourselves. Our lack of prayer demonstrates a lack of trust, but thanks be to God, in this passage, we will see that our victory is in Jesus Christ. Luke 22, 39 and following.

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down to the ground.

And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. We find Jesus now having left the upper room, where he had the last supper with his disciples, and they leave the house, they go through the eastern gate to that mountain called the Mount of Olives.

And a certain part of that mountain, a garden, was called Gethsemane. It means the olive press. So there on the Mount of Olives, no doubt the mountain was covered with olive trees, there was some press nearby where the olives were pressed.

Here Jesus goes to pray, and his disciples with him. And we see two things in this section. One, we see the willing submission of Jesus to take the cup from the Father's hand. First question, what is that cup?

And secondly, we see, contrasted with the faithfulness of Jesus, trusting in God, we see the faithlessness of the disciples, who are told to pray again and again, and yet they keep falling asleep. So what is the cup?

We take a cup, and later in the service today, we'll drink a communion cup, a cup of blessing which we bless. The cup that Jesus speaks about, in verse 42, is a cup of wrath, it's a cup of judgment. Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm, chapter 75,.

Verse eight, for the hand of the Lord,.

In the hand of the Lord, there is a cup. With foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. This is a cup of judgment. We see it in Isaiah, chapter 51.

And turn with me to Revelation, chapter 14, verse 10. The church having been taken, raptured, to be with God, the earth begins to receive the cup of God's wrath. Begin in verse nine, and another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath.

Poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb. The cup, which was given to Jesus to drink, was a cup of wrath.

Now, why would Jesus drink a cup of wrath? He is the lamb, in Revelation 14, 10, he is innocent. Like a lamb, he's led to the slaughter. Why would he take and drink a cup of wrath from his father? Well, therein is the very heart of the gospel.

Teenagers, we talked about it this morning in Sunday school. This is substitution, where Jesus drinks a cup of wrath that we deserve. And so he prays in the garden, if there's any other way. There is no other way.

There's no way for a sinner like me to be saved, because what I deserve from God, being that he is holy and I'm a sinner, is wrath. I deserve his anger, I deserve his judgment. And yet, here is the father's plan.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, it is the will of the father to crush the son under his wrath, turning that wrath away from me. The wrath of God is turned away because Jesus takes the cup and drinks it to the full.

The full dregs of it, the full weight of it. The cup is a cup of judgment, a cup of wrath. Notice how faithful Jesus is to the plan of the father. Not my will, but yours be done. Submitting himself to this eternal plan.

It's not what his flesh would want. It's what the father has planned and what he himself has gone willingly to do. Remove this cup. Contrast that faithfulness of God with the faithlessness of the disciples.

Verse 39, in the Mount of Olives, all of us will go to a Gethsemane one day, where we're alone and we have no strength of our own. And all we can do is cry out to God. And yet in the midst of this place, verse 40, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

The first thing they do is fall asleep. They're not prepared. We must prepare for the hour of darkness. We must be prepared for the hour of temptation because we, you and I, brother and sister, we have no strength to resist the world, the flesh and the devil in and of ourselves.

Before that temptation comes, and we'll see it come upon Peter later in this chapter, and he'll fall, there is an hour of prayer where you go alone with the father and spend time. And that is the source of strength.

It's his strength imparted to you. When you are prayerless, when I am prayerless, it means I think I'm okay on my own. I'm relying on myself. It's not an evidence of trust in God to be prayerless. Rather, it's an evidence of self-reliance.

You think you're okay, you think you're safe. You think you're good to go. I was woefully unprepared for hand-to-hand combat one day. I was living in Florida many years ago, funny story. It was my tradition after a seminary class to go by, I think it was a CVS, it might have been Rite Aid or whatever, and I would buy a Gatorade.

And as I would go in, there would always be this guy named Chucky who was working at the photo booth, actually. And I'd go by him and I'd say, hey, Chucky, how you doing? We'd talk for a little while, and then I'd go around the corner and get my Gatorade.

But one day, as I grabbed that Gatorade, I heard a shout from the back of the CVS. And I looked, and a man was running straight at me. And the guy from the pharmacy was yelling, stop that guy. He had just robbed the pharmacy.

Stop him. And as he came running at me, I was a deer caught in the headlights, holding my Gatorade. Was I prepared to fight? Did I have strength in myself for that hour of testing? And as he ran out at me, I made the decision to step back and let him go.

I wanted no part in a tangle right there in the middle of a CVS. But Chucky had a different plan. As this man turned the corner, Chucky came out from behind the photo booth and dove for him, missed him, and knocked out the end of an aisle.

And the man looked back running as he went. I trotted up there to make sure he was all right,.

And I looked.

But as the man approached the front of the CVS, two men who were prepared were entering the building. I kid you not, one man had a t-shirt that said, USMC, and the other, this is not made up, his shirt said, Boxer.

And these guys were ready. He got to the door and he got taken down. Complete takedown and held to the ground. Well, Chucky wanted in on this, so he came running and literally jumped on top of the man's face, only to get bitten where it hurt, and jump up and say, he bit me!

And started running around the aisles like a little girl. Meanwhile, I'm standing there, watching this, and in my own way, kind of wimpy, just watching it unfold until the police got there. I was woefully unprepared for hand-to-hand combat.

Brothers and sisters, are you prepared this morning.

For spiritual combat?

Are you prepared for temptation? Physical training is of some value, as you can see. But spiritual training is of great value. It holds promise not only for this age, but for the age to come. We go into battle unprepared, day after day.

Prayerless nights, going to bed, falling into temptation. Waking in the morning, prayerless mornings, falling into temptation. That person speaks a cross word to you, and you shoot back in the flesh. Something, some circumstance goes wrong, and you blow your top.

Why do we fall to temptation? It begins in the hours of preparation. The USMC guy, the boxer, they had spent time preparing for battle, and they were ready for it. And when the hour of testing came, they were strong.

What do the hours of your prayer life look like? Or are they better described as minutes or seconds? If an athlete needs to spend time in the gym, day after day, lifting weights and training, how much more, brothers and sisters, do we need these hours of prayer to become strong?

Peter was trusting that he was strong like Samson. Peter's a fisherman. He spent his life on the waters, pulling in nets, rough hands, not afraid of anything. And saying, I'll go die with you, Jesus. And yet he was unprepared for the hour of temptation.

Judas, the Arrest, and the Hour of Darkness

Verse 47 and following. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas. One of the 12 was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss?

And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? Recall verse 38 of this chapter, where Jesus told them to be prepared, have a sword. Now they want to lash out in the flesh, and one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

Peter wasn't aiming for the ear, was he? He was aiming for the neck. I think he was a little groggy, because he had been sleeping. He takes off the ear, but Jesus heals him. Verse 51, Jesus said, no more of this, and he touched his ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness.

This is the hour of darkness. This is the time of temptation. This is where the devil is moving in. The flesh, the world are coming together in opposition to the Holy One, Jesus Christ. Jesus could have spoken a word to defeat his enemies.

We learn about that in John chapter 18, I believe it is. When these soldiers come to arrest him, he says, who are you looking for? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth, and he says, ego eimi.

I am.

It's a reference to the book of Exodus where the God of Israel is called, I am who I am. When you go to talk to Pharaoh, tell him I am sent you. Jesus says, I am. And under the force of his confession, being God, he knocks them over and he says, don't you know I could have called for 12 legion of angels?

Well, if you read the Old Testament, you know that one angel went out and slayed 185 ,000 men in battle. Imagine what 144 ,000 angels could do. Was there any danger for Jesus in a physical sense? No, he could have spoken a word and called the angels to protect him, but here's the point, no one takes my life,.

I give it willingly.

He's laying down his life. He has the power to fight, but he's going like a lamb to the slaughter, Isaiah 53. To lay down his life for the sheep. Peter, on the other hand, and the other disciples.

Are not ready.

Peter’s Denial and Bitter Weeping

Verse 54. And following, in this hour of darkness, then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.

Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him said, this man also was with him, but he denied it. Saying, woman, I do not know him. And a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them.

But Peter said, man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about.

And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he said to him, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly. All of us know the bitterness of weeping because having sinned, we turn back and look at Jesus and we realize that we have failed him.

Why do we fail?

Such an emotional moment here when they make eye contact and the memory of Jesus's prophecy comes flooding back into Peter's mind and he realizes that he's fallen. We realize when we have fallen and the weight of that sin comes upon us, the guilt of our conscience, it breaks us.

It's an emotional moment here. Jesus isn't done with him. Just imagine what Peter thought when reading Luke's gospel in 62 AD. The book comes out, it's getting circulated around the churches, it comes to wherever Peter is and he reads it, maybe Luke is there with him and he gets to this part and he says,.

Then a servant girl, dude,.

Why did you have to include that detail? Seriously, you're gonna tell that it was a little girl that I was afraid of. Luke, come on, did you have to include that.

In the writing of this book?

A servant girl.

See, he wasn't afraid of the little girl. She couldn't have tackled him or anything like that but if she got loud enough, others might have heard that he's with Jesus and he might have ended up with Jesus on a cross.

He was afraid of what was happening to Jesus. It was where he deserved to go. The cross was not belonging to Jesus in the first place, it belonged to me. That was my punishment. That was Peter's punishment.

He fails miserably because he wasn't prepared to trust. Jesus had foretold this coming cross but Peter didn't hear. He wasn't listening, he didn't hear the word, he wasn't praying, he wasn't ready. And yet, Jesus looks at him, he brings conviction first but ultimately, what he's doing in this whole scene is taking up the cup of wrath.

Look at the next three verses, 63 to 65. Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, prophesy, who is it that struck you?

And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him. Here Jesus takes up the cup of wrath and begins to drink deeply from the cup of God's wrath. He's being mocked, beaten, blindfolded and struck.

Many other things said against him, blaspheming who he is. Jesus drinks deeply from the cup of God's wrath and this suffering is only now beginning to ramp up. More trials are to come and then the flogging from Pontius Pilate and then that road where he carries the cross to Calvary and then laying down upon a cross, being raised up upon a cross, suffering the death that we deserve.

Jesus looked at Peter to bring conviction but Jesus carried a cross to set him free. And the same is true of us. That's recorded about the weakness of Peter, about the little girl that scared him because we fall in the same way.

It's recorded for us. We are weak in ourselves. We fall and yet Jesus carries the cross so that whoever will look to him finds forgiveness of sin. The cup of wrath that Jesus drinks provides for us the cup of blessing which we bless.

In a little bit we're gonna take communion and that cup of blessing which we bless represents forgiveness of sin. Eternal life. Jesus has carried our cross. Verse 66, and we'll close out this chapter.

Jesus Before the Council and the Good Confession

When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led them away to their council. And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you will not believe.

And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Claiming to be the Messiah from Daniel chapter seven. And they said to him, they all said, are you the Son of God then?

And he said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips. See, these were suppressors of truth. Jesus is the creator. They're suppressing the truth that they know.

And maybe even in private places, they have said it, that he is the Christ. Yet Jesus here confesses himself to be the Son of God, who will be seated at the right hand of the throne of power, Daniel seven.

Have you had opportunity to witness at your workplace, at school, and been afraid to confess the name of Jesus? Later on here, Pilate will question Jesus, and Jesus will confess again that he is the Christ.

Making the good confession in the presence of Pontius Pilate. First Timothy six, I think it's verses 12 and 13. Tell us in the same way, and commend Timothy for making the good confession. Jesus confessed what Peter wouldn't.

Peter said, I never knew him. We say I never knew him when we're silent, although the Spirit is telling us to give the good confession. We fall short in what we fail to do, not just in what we do. The sins that we commit, we fall short all the time.

Why do we fall short? It's from these hours of prayer that we're missing. These times in the word, we need to grow stronger, so that when the hour comes, we will be prepared. So Michael, would you come up, worship team?

We're gonna play a song, and the way we're gonna close the sermon today is we're going to take communion. We can get the kids to come back in. Maybe one of the ushers could run and let them know. Thanks.

We'll sing a song, but think about what we saw today. We saw failing Peter.

That's me.

Pastor Jeff, that's you. How often we fail, how often we fall short. We fail for this lack of preparation, for lack of prayer, for relying on ourselves because we think we can handle it. Have you been falling short in areas of your life this week?

The good news is that where Peter falls short and is faithless, he remains faithful. We have a faithful God. We have forgiveness of sin offered to us in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We take communion as a symbol of that.

So begin to think of the areas where you have been Peter this week, this month, fallen short of his glory. We have a savior who provides. The lamb has provided. Let's stand and sing, and then we'll take communion together.