Death on The Horizon Matthew 26:1-5

The Inevitability of Death and the Wisdom of Numbering Our Days

Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin and sin came into the world one thing has been inevitable. For the whole world and that is death. Death is coming to all and one thing that all wise people have in common is that they think about their own death.

I.

Remember having a conversation with a Christian friend of mine a number of years ago Who experienced death at a young age? His mother passed away, so he was well aware that death interrupts people's lives.

And he was a Christian who had the understanding that death will come and he was trusting Christ for where he would spend eternity. But during this conversation he made an interesting comment. He made a comment about some of his friends.

He had friends who through the combination of not experiencing much death in their lives and not being Christians. They had not given hardly any thought to the fact that they would die. But wise people Give thought to their death as Psalm 90 verse 12 says.

Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Jesus Christ is the wisest person who has ever lived and when he came to this earth. He knew That he was on this earth for a short time. He was only on this earth for 30 plus years and during that time he made the most of every moment.

What is interesting about Jesus life is that his ministry did not start until the last three and a half years of his life. Think about this. I've been your pastor for six years. Jesus ministry only lasted three and a half years.

Before his ministry started he did the same trade that his father Joseph did. He was a carpenter in the small village of Nazareth. His life was ordinary. But once John the Baptist prepared the way for him, he knew it was time for his ministry to start.

What he did right at the beginning of his ministry was call men to follow him. This was his grand plan to change the world to pick 12 men. Pour himself into them for a few short years. So that when he was gone, they would spread his message to the world.

What Jesus did is teach his disciples everything they needed to know to spread the gospel and to build his church. As He taught them he told them what was going to happen to him. Jesus knew his time was short.

He knew he was going to die so he told his disciples numerous times that he was going to leave them. Jesus life was one of accomplishing everything he needed to do before he left and One of the most important things he did was preparing his disciples for this time when he would be gone.

This morning as we continue our sermon series through Matthew Jesus is once again going to inform his disciples about the reality of his death. That is coming very soon. So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 26.

We will be looking at verses 1 through 5 and if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 988. This sermon is titled death on the horizon and as I begin I Am going to read these verses. Matthew 26 verses 1 through 5 When Jesus had finished all these sayings he said to his disciples you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be.

Crucified.

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas and Plotting together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him but they said Not during the feast Lest there be an uproar among the people.

Here's our big idea what this text is calling you to do. Understand that Christ Was fully ready for his impending sacrificial death. Understand that Christ was fully ready for his impending Sacrificial death.

And we're gonna see two ways how in this text that will come out as we go through. But before we get into the text Let me give you a little recap of where we were one week ago. Last week we looked at verses 31 through 46 of Matthew 25.

In those verses We saw Jesus once again teach concerning the final judgment. What I explained is that there are two views on this passage as to which judgment this is. Some view this judgment as the same judgment at the very end.

That is the Great White Throne judgment the judgment for unbelievers and the judgment seat of Christ the judgment for believers. But what I explained is that what best fits the context since this judgment happens right after Jesus return.

Is that this judgment precedes the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ? So this pictures those who survived the final seven-year tribulation. And what Jesus is going to do is place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

The goats on his left will not be allowed into the kingdom, but will be cast into the lake of fire. While the sheep on his right will receive entrance into the kingdom where they will reign with Christ For 1 ,000 years and then enter the eternal kingdom where they reign with God on the new earth.

While this text at the end of Matthew 25 is describing a Specific judgment that will take place at Christ's return. This judgment is of course Relevant to everyone because what is pictured at this judgment will take place at the final judgment at the very end the judgment that everyone Will be yet.

What we saw Jesus do one week ago is lists the works of the sheep and the works of the goats. The sheep on his right did good works while the The goats on his left did not do good words. Remember that they provided for the needs of the people and specifically in the context.

It was the needs of the people of Israel. But in general the needs of those that the Lord puts in your path. Especially those believers that he puts across your path. The sheep will be those who have done these works.

All the goats will be those who have not and They will receive the verdict from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this leads our us once again to our text that we've already read but now we're going to zero in on.

Let's begin by looking closely at verses 1 2 of Matthew 26. We're once again the author Matthew writes when Jesus had finished all these sayings He said to his disciples. You know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

The first thing we read is That the author Matthew tells his readers that once again Jesus finished all these sayings. He then began to talk about his death. The question we need to ask is What sayings did Jesus just finish?

For quite some time now Jesus has been preaching to the crowds and preaching to his disciples. It goes back to Matthew 22 Where we saw Jesus Questioned by the corrupt Jewish leaders and what he did in that chapter is put them in their place with every answer that he gave.

Then in chapter 23 Jesus used this interaction with the Jewish leadership to launch into a lengthy rebuke of the Jewish religious establishment. The Jewish leadership were blind guides leading the people into a pit.

He preached rebuke and condemnation toward the Jewish leadership in the temple area and The people present to hear this rebuke were the crowds and his disciples as verse 1 of chapter 23 says. Then after this lengthy rebuke Jesus left the temple area and his disciples followed him.

And what Jesus noticed was how impressed they were. They saw all the buildings of the temple and Jesus uses this time to tell his disciples that this temple is going to be destroyed and The thought of the temple being destroyed made the disciples think about how the world is going to end and so they asked him What will be the sign of his coming?

And the end of the age or you're coming in the end of the age and then Jesus goes on this lengthy discourse. Known as the Olivet discourse where he tells his disciples How the world is going to end what the world is going to be like before Christ returns to the earth.

Then in chapter 25 He told his disciples about the delay that will take place between his first and second coming and then the remainder of the chapter in Chapter 25 as we saw the last two Sundays He talks about the final judgment.

So in verse 1 of our chapter when the author Matthew says that Jesus had finished all these sayings what he's talking about. Is the preaching that he just did in chapters 22 through 25? Then Matthew tells his readers at the end of verse 1 and all of verse 2 what Jesus told his disciples.

He tells them. You know that after two days The Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. From what Jesus says here we know what day He passed along the sobering news to his disciples.

The text says two days before Passover, which is on Friday. So he told this them on Wednesday of Holy Week. This is not the first time that Jesus has told his disciples about his coming death. The Gospel of Matthew records that Jesus told his disciples about his death four times.

Which again as I mentioned in the introduction Jesus knows he is going to die soon. And he knows how he is going to die. He would be crucified with the knowledge that Jesus Had concerning his own death.

He does not dodge his responsibility. He knew how he was going to die and he willingly submitted himself to it. Did you know that John 3 16 is the words of Jesus. Sometimes in those red-letter Bibles it shows that he said John 3 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He says that to Nicodemus because Nicodemus asked him How do we enter the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus knew How his life was going to end. He knew the plan from the very beginning. He knew that his father sent him on a rescue mission to save sinners.

He knew he needed to go to Jerusalem to be the sacrifice for sinners. His focus was always on that day in Jerusalem when he would die. The first time Jesus told his disciples that he was going to die was Matthew 16 21 where Matthew records from that time.

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things. From the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. What Jesus tells his disciples in verse 2 of our chapter is.

You know. Why does he say, you know, well because he's told them already. He's told them several times. Remember, this is the fourth time Jesus tells his disciples that he's going to the cross. That he's going to be crucified.

He doesn't just tell them vaguely. That he's going to die. He is incredibly specific. He is precise in the details concerning his death. Jesus precision reminds us of how amazing Bible prophecy is. He tells them how he is going to die.

Through crucifixion. He tells them where he is going to die. The city of Jerusalem. He tells them who is going to kill him. The Jewish leaders. Who will hand him over to the Gentiles? That is the Romans.

He tells them even when he is going to die. He will be crucified on the Passover. Does anybody know those details about your death? When where why how. I.

Don't know what I'm gonna die.

Jesus knew this is how prophecy works. Biblical prophecy is not like the 16th century French method and mathematician Nostradamus Who supposedly predicted the rise of Hitler? No, Nostradamus made broad Prophecies where an elephant could fit through it.

But all the prophets in the Bible including Jesus made specific predictions where when someone sighed the only explanation is.

God.

Said it through this person. The only one who knows the future is God and this person said it so this is from God. They would come to pass exactly how it was predicted as we go through in Matthew 26 and 27.

We are going to see Jesus words play out exactly how he said it would. Now as we think about what Jesus said to his disciples concerning his death. I want to focus a Bit on the day that Jesus would be crucified.

This is significant. Once again, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be crucified on the Passover. There's so much symbolism in Jesus being crucified on this very day. There is far more symbolism than we realize and this is why I'm I'm excited.

That's not too far down the road. We're having a Visitor actually someone you've seen before Trevor Rubinstein a Jewish missionary. That we just started supporting on March 24th. He is coming to present on how the Passover Pointed ahead to the crucifixion of Christ that even this very day when rabbis Eat the Passover and give the words of institution.

They actually are showing that this is about Jesus that Jesus is the Messiah. This is all pointing to him. And so he's gonna present on that on Friday March 24th. So put that in your calendars. But I want to briefly just explain here Generally how the Passover predicted the crucifixion of Christ.

It's not random and it's not a coincidence that Jesus died on the Passover. The Passover is described in Exodus 12. The Passover is named the Passover because God passed over the homes of the Israelites That had the blood of a sacrificed lamb placed on the doorposts.

This lamb that was sacrificed needed to be without blemish while the Israelites had the blood on their doorposts the Egyptians did not and When God came Upon the land that night all of the Egyptians homes that did not have the blood on their doorposts.

Were judged through the death of the firstborn child. To remember this day When God passed over the Israelites homes that had the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorposts.

God.

Appointed the people to have a feast to remember this at this feast They would sacrifice a lamb without blemish. The New Testament makes the connection between the Passover that happened all those years before and The sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

John the Baptist in John 129 called Jesus the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world? The Apostle Paul in first Corinthians 5 7 called Christ our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed. There is a reason that Jesus died on the Passover.

He is the spotless Lamb who would be sacrificed and the one covered by his blood Would not face God's judgment Just as the Israelites did not face judgment when the blood of the spotless lamb was placed on their doorposts.

Wow.

So the sacrifice of Christ is pictured clearly and then it comes to pass 2 ,000 years ago. And anyone who believes that the lamb who was sacrificed for them has their sins Forgiven and escapes God's judgment.

It's not amazing how the whole Bible just connects and Jesus knew that his death was coming. And he knew the very day he would die his death his sacrifice would be on the Passover. We of course know how Jesus knew this while it is true that for quite some time the Jewish leaders have wanted to Kill him.

There's been a bounty out for him. Jesus always knew what the plan was. He knew from the foundation of the world what the plan was since he is the second person of the Trinity. So in his deity he of course knew.

Revelation 13 8 says the book of life was written before the foundation of the world that first calls this book. With the names of the redeemed the book of the life of the lamb who was slain. So Christ wrote this book with names of the redeemed in it in his blood before the foundation of the world.

So he knew before the world began what the plan was and he knew from the earliest days. When he came to this earth as a man his eyes were always on Jerusalem. Sometimes people say that you know an Olympian.

Their eyes are on the gold medal. They've been preparing for it. They know that day is coming when they're gonna run that race and they're gonna try to win the gold medal. When Christ came to the earth the mission was always Jerusalem.

The mission was always the cross. His eyes were always fixed there. His life was singularly focused on.

That.

He knew he was going to die. So what he did during his own ministry was to prepare his disciples for what was coming. Think about it these disciples. I mean just an Unspectacular group of people you might be thinking.

Okay. Why did God choose these people? He didn't pick the brightest. He didn't pick the best-looking probably he didn't pick the most athletic, you know, everything you could think of. But for some reason he picked these guys.

He picked ordinary guys who through the power of the Holy Spirit would change the whole world. As he tells his disciples that he's going to die they don't get it. They have a hard time Understanding all of this talk about him being crucified.

They knew he was the Messiah. They confessed that. But they didn't understand why he would be crucified. They were perplexed because they had embraced the common view among Jews concerning what the Messiah was going to be.

The Jews in the first century believed the Old Testament taught a conquering Messiah, but not a suffering one. Isaiah 53 as I read this morning explains the suffering Messiah, but they overlooked that passage.

So every time Jesus explained to his disciples that he was going to be crucified. They didn't get it. But he told them what was coming so that he would make it clear to them that he was fulfilling God's plan and that after his resurrection they would see that this was indeed God's plan all along and Then they had the important responsibility to spread the message of the cross.

It was written in the Old Testament. Jesus himself said it and after his erection resurrection, they would see it as well. Remember that scene where John runs. Remember John outruns Peter to get to the tomb first and then but Peter's the first one to look in and Peter's like.

What is this?

And Peter's you got to be thinking at that moment. Wow, this is he actually said this. They believed The day that his death was finally arriving and he made it clear to his disciples how he would die and what day he would die.

Understand that Christ was fully ready for his impending sacrificial death and the first way how You are to understand this is through seeing that he informed his disciples of the specific time and mode of his death.

Seeing that he informed his disciples of the specific time and mode of his death and the outline is in your Bulletins if you want to write this down. Here's a second way how you are to understand that Christ was fully ready for his impending sacrificial death and that is through knowing That he was preparing to give himself up to his enemies.

He was preparing to give himself up to his enemies and we'll see this in verses 3 through 5. Now as we highlighted in the previous point Jesus knew how and when he would die. But what we are about to read is that he knew the ones who would bring about his murder.

Let's read about what Matthew writes concerning this in verses 3 through 5 as we've already read. But let's look at it again here then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of a high priest whose name was Caiaphas and Plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

But they said not during the feast lest there be an uproar among the people. What we read here is about two specific Jewish groups. Who had power in Judea? That was the name of this region in Palestine at this time in the first century is called Judea.

The first group was the chief priests. The chief priests were the higher-up priests who served in the temple in Jerusalem. The highest of all the priest was the high priest who I'll describe More in just a little bit along with the chief priests in leadership were the elders of the people.

The elders were the leaders of each of the twelve tribes of Israel. They go back to the Old Testament, and they are still here in the first century. In Chapter 16 Jesus also mentions the scribes as being involved in plotting the death of Jesus.

And the scribes were those who taught the Old Testament to the people and they not only taught the Old Testament. But they taught a lot of extra biblical things. The tradition of the Jews these groups a Select number of them belonged to what was known as the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was as one author said the ruling body in Jerusalem. What verse 3 tells us is that the Sanhedrin gathered in the palace of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas? As I just mentioned the high priest was the highest of all the priests.

His lineage goes back to Aaron Who went into the temple on behalf of his fellow Israelites? While the high priest had many responsibilities his biggest task Was to go into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.

This is described in Leviticus 16. He was responsible to place the blood of the bulls and goats on the mercy seat. To represent that there needed to be a sacrifice for sins. And of course Jesus is that sacrifice that it all pointed ahead to?

Only the high priest could do this. So he had enormous authority over the people of Israel and the chief priests and elders Had this authority along with him. Now authority exercised rightly is a good thing.

Can you imagine a world without authority? It would be chaos we need These institutions, right? We need the government. We need Husbands to leave their homes. We need pastors to lead churches. Businesses need people to lead them.

So authority exercised rightly is a good thing, but the problem in The first century and the problem we see so often in our day is that authority is abused. Sadly we see this in our country right now.

The federal government does not function according to the Constitution largely speaking. The Constitution was written to give power to the people not to have centralized Authority that abuses people's rights.

Our government was created. It's a government of the people by the people for the people. Do you need leaders in that but The it's set up where leaders can't step over their bounds. There's there's limits to their power.

We have a government of the government by the government for the government. When government is God People's God-given rights are taken away and government pushes forward its own initiatives. Which always gives itself more power you'll notice that that's what that's what that's their goal.

They want to increase their power and we see the abuse of power in our day. And there was a great abuse of power in the first century during Jesus ministry right from the day Jesus started his ministry.

There was a Collision course between the corrupt Jewish Establishment and the true prophet of God the Son of Man Jesus Christ so the high priest was corrupt the chief priests who served under him were corrupt and the elders of the people who were Supposed to judge the affairs of the people were corrupt.

None of them were functioning according to the law of God. They were all doing their own thing. They were enriching themselves. They were giving themselves more authority over the people and The high priest Caiaphas is at the top of this.

He had quite a run as a high priest. He ruled as a high priest from 18 AD to 36 AD as the most powerful Jew. He profited from the financial corruption that took place at the temple earlier in Matthew 21.

We saw Jesus drive out the money changers who turned the place into a marketplace in The Gospels the high priest Caiaphas is always seen as hostile toward Jesus. As I already alluded to he saw Jesus as a threat to his power more on that in a bit.

Now as we look at verses 3 through 5 It doesn't explicitly say that Jesus was aware of the Jewish leadership plotting his death. Matthew is just writing what's happening as Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to be crucified on the Passover.

Matthew writes at the same time. What was going on is that these Jewish leaders are plotting his death. But we know from Matthew 16 21 where Jesus says explicitly the chief priests the elders of the people and the scribes are Going to put me to death in Jerusalem.

So he knows what is going on here. And what is amazing about Christ is that he did not run from danger during his ministry. To the contrary he put himself in a place where evil people would go after him.

Well, it is true that he fled from hostile people at times during his ministry. He only did this because he knew that his time had not yet come. His father in heaven had more work for him to do and whenever the time came which he knew.

Then he would give himself up to these evil people. He knew he would die and so his eyes were fixed on Jerusalem the place where he would be crucified and as he tells his disciples that he is going To be crucified in two days.

This is where he is. He's in the place. He's in Jerusalem. He's very much in harm's way. What Jesus did throughout his ministry? Was not shy away from controversy. And this is this is the thing when we talk about being Christlike.

How many people actually follow Jesus in this way? He did not shy away from controversy think about that. He knew. The most powerful people in Judea were out for him. There was one point when his family told him you need to tone it down as His preaching pierced the corrupt Jewish leaders right between the eyes.

But he wouldn't tone it down. Instead of hiding and safety. He was fulfilling his ministry by saying what he needed to be said and it reached its peak in Matthew 23 as we saw He calls them all these names.

He knows he's a dead man and he just goes right out and says this is what you did. This is who you are. This is how evil of a people you are. You are blind guides. You are a brood of vipers. You are sons of hell.

You are hypocrites. I Mean to say that he did not shy away of con shy away From controversy would be an understatement. Recently, I was speaking with another pastor about how to engage our culture with the gospel.

Well, it is true that we should speak the truth in love as the Ephesians 413 says. What we must understand is that our culture is not so much hostile about how we preach the truth. But that we preach the truth at all.

Let me say that again our culture is.

Not.

Hostile toward us because of how We preach and communicate the truth, it's that we communicate the truth at all. We need to remember. We need to remember who the world is. The world hates God. They hate his Precepts when we see this in the news all the time and we've seen this recently with former NFL coach Tony Dungy.

Who is a Christian in the public eye? Over the years Dungy has been critical of the LGBTQ movement. He has held the line on biblical marriage between one man and one woman. He has also always been a strong supporter of protecting the rights of pre-born babies.

And everyone who knows Dungy knows what a nice guy he is. Any player who ever played for him knows this? And you have Mike Ditka right on one end and then you have Tony Dungy on the other end. He's arguably the least vile coach the NFL has ever seen.

When Dungy coached the Buccaneers and Colts his teams would pray before they took the field. What's interesting is that the the Buccaneers fired? Dungy and then the next year they won the Super Bowl with his players.

But even then when before they went out to play in the Super Bowl guess what they're like we're gonna pray. So his influence continued with them even when he was gone, and then of course he won a Super Bowl with the Colts a few years later.

None of his players Would say a bad word about him, and he had a rule with his players. You're not allowed to swear. Think about that. I mean most high school teams swear up a storm an NFL team not swearing.

It just seems so out of place, but that was his rule to his players.

Yet.

You'd think oh everyone thinks he's a great guy. No. His continued stance on biblical marriage and his recent attendance at the March for life in Washington Has led secular people to call him a bigot and a right-wing zealot.

It is not Dungy's tone. That is the problem to the world. It is that he holds to the Bible. That's the problem. The Bible and our society are going in two different directions. They cannot coexist and that is where persecution comes the believers way.

You can't avoid it. There comes a point where it's just gonna happen. What everyone needs to understand is that any opposition you face for your stand for biblical truth is Not because you're a bigot.

It's not because you are some radical. It is because the world hates God the Father and his son Jesus Christ.

Jesus said it would be this way.

John 15 18 if the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the World the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world. But I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you.

We should follow Jesus example in being courageous in speaking the truth to a hostile world. From early on in Jesus ministry the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus out of the picture. They saw him as a threat to their religious Establishments and when he taught he called out their false religious establishment.

He wasn't thinking okay. We don't want to offend them. Okay, we want to win as many people as possible. You know that's that's that's the way that so many churches run, right? We don't want to offend people.

We want to get as many people in the door as possible if we're doing that. We're not following Jesus and this greatly angered.

Caiaphas.

The chief priests and the elders. Jesus did not hide and was not afraid to offend. He was right out in front speaking the truth. And sometimes you may hear the question. Why was Jesus sentenced to be crucified?

Well, there's two answers to this one is as we read in the call to worship. It was the will of the Lord. Acts 427 says for truly in this city were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate Along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Okay, so in one sense. Well, it was the will of the Lord and he used evil men to bring this about. But that's from the divine perspective. From the human perspective Jesus was crucified. Because they saw him as a threat he went after them.

He was out in front. He spoke the truth. He was courageous. Verse 4 says the chief priests the elders and the high priest Caiaphas all plotted to kill Jesus. They wanted him out of the picture. This collision course, there's the prophet of God the Son of God on one side and then there's these corrupt.

Jewish.

Religious.

Sons of hell on the other side. That's not nice to say that. No, that's what Jesus said that he called them that that's who they really were. This is collision course, they can't coexist. Sometimes you see those coexist stickers.

They can't coexist. And you know, I believe that the the one the end times religion the false religion the the one world religion. It's gonna be an ecumenical movement with so we're seeing the seeds of that right now.

This ecumenical movement where it doesn't matter what religion you're in. We're all one religion. We're all together. We're all and we see the Pope doing that already in the Vatican. We're all one. No, but not if you're a good person one time.

You said it, you know an atheist if he was a good person, he'll God will see that and he'll go to heaven. He's a bad.

Catholic.

Conservative Catholics don't believe that and somehow he's the Pope. I mean what a great evangelism evangelistic opportunity with the Roman Catholic your Pope. What's going on here. Something's not adding up now.

They want they were out to get Jesus they couldn't coexist. There's this collision course and This text tells us how they wanted to arrest him. These are cowards. One thing was very clear. They did not want to arrest him in public.

Evil people are always cowards when it comes down to it. What we have seen throughout Matthew is that the Jewish leadership is they feared an insurrection. They knew that Jesus was popular. They knew of the crowds that would follow him wherever he went.

So they didn't want to arrest him in public and cause an immediate uproar. Where the people would turn against the Jewish leadership and not allow him to be arrested. So their plan was to arrest him in private as the end of verse 4 says.