FBC Daily Devotional – March 23, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:06

Well, a good Tuesday to you. Hope you're off to a good start this week and your day yesterday went well.

00:12

I always look at Monday as being kind of like a barometer for how the week is going to go.

00:21

If my Monday gets off to a good start, I'm feeling pretty good about Tuesday and the rest of the week.

00:30

I always dread it if something comes up on a Monday and there's certain things I try to get done on Monday, and if for whatever reason those don't get done, they get pushed off to Tuesday, then

00:41

I just kind of feel behind. I hope that's not your feeling today, and I hope things are going well for you.

00:48

Well, we're reading today in Matthew chapter 26, and the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is betrayed by Judas and then arrested, it's kind of good we're reading this section of Scripture at this particular time.

01:06

It's coming Sunday, Palm Sunday, and then the following Sunday will be

01:11

Resurrection Sunday. It's good to be in this section of Scripture where we're looking at the events leading up to the crucifixion and then ultimately the resurrection.

01:21

This scene in the Garden of Jesus' arrest, the betrayal and arrest, it really reveals several things to us, and I just want to kind of itemize these today and hope you can think about them and meditate on them through the course of the day.

01:36

One of them is just how cruel and heartless a professed follower of Jesus can actually be.

01:47

I mean, here is Judas who comes to Jesus and gives him a kiss to identify him as the one to be arrested, as a way of betraying him, gives him a kiss to betray him.

02:02

Surely the bitterness of this man must have run very deep, and his animosity was great, and yet he had professed to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, and had everybody hoodwinked and faked.

02:18

A professed believer can end up being a very cruel and heartless, bitter person.

02:25

Then also notice how gentle the heart of Jesus as he addresses

02:31

Judas and calls him friend. Friend. I wonder how many of us would have such grace.

02:41

I wonder how many of us could be so gentle. We might call him traitor or lash out at him in some other way, but how many of us would

02:51

How many of us would actually call him friend, and yet Jesus does? Then I think of how kind and compassionate

02:58

Jesus' heart is. You have this situation in verse 51 where Matthew tells us that one of Jesus' followers took out a sword and lopped off the ear of this servant of the high priest, cut off his ear.

03:14

We know in a parallel passage that it was Peter who had done that, very typical of Peter to impetuously lash out in such a way, but Jesus in rebuking

03:28

Peter, he then, and again we find this in a parallel passage, he then takes that severed ear and heals the man.

03:39

Wow. How kind and compassionate is his heart? How many of us would have just kind of said, yeah, you got that one, you got what you deserve on that one, kind of a thing, and go on, but not

03:55

Jesus. Then what is also revealed in this garden scene is how resigned

04:00

Jesus was to the cross that is coming. He's telling the soldiers that came out to arrest him, tell them to do what they came to do.

04:13

We see this in verse 50. He says, do what you came to do, do what you came to do.

04:21

In verse 53, he reveals that if he wanted to, he could call 12 legions of angels and they would come and rescue him from anything this ragtag group of temple soldiers might want to do to Jesus.

04:39

They would be nothing for these legions of angels to deal with, and yet he doesn't do that.

04:47

Like the gospel song written years ago, he could have called 10 ,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free.

04:56

He could have called 10 ,000 angels, but he died alone for you and me.

05:03

This is what he came to do, so when it came time for them to come and arrest him, to take him to the cross, he said, do what you came to do.

05:15

Then I see how determined Jesus was to fulfill the Old Testament meticulously.

05:23

After he says, did you not know that I could call 12 legions of angels and have them come and rescue me?

05:29

He goes on to say, if I did that, how then could the scriptures be fulfilled that it must thus happen?

05:37

He's not willing to call these angels to deliver him, because the

05:42

Old Testament scriptures have to be fulfilled. And he goes on in verse 55 and says to the multitude, have you come out against me as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me?

05:54

I sat daily in the temple, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize me.

05:59

But then he says this, but all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

06:08

So he was determined that the Old Testament would be fulfilled meticulously.

06:15

And then another thing that's revealed in this garden scene is just how weak even the strongest, most loyal followers of Jesus can be.

06:28

You read at the end of this section in verse 56, all the disciples forsook him and fled.

06:36

All of them did. John, the one whom he loved the most, Peter, the one who just earlier had announced that if everybody else left, he'd stay with him.

06:48

Yeah, no. All of them fled. Yeah, you know, all of us who are followers of Christ, we have our areas of weakness, and we should not be so proud and bold as to proclaim strength that we do not really have apart from the grace of God.

07:17

Beware of that. Even the strongest and most loyal followers of Jesus can be weak at times.

07:25

And then finally, what's revealed here is just how dark and corrupt and blind and cruel the heart of godless religious leaders can be.

07:37

Here comes Jesus, having been arrested by those in the garden. And in verse 57, we read that those who had laid hold of Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, the

07:48

Caiaphas, the high priest, the religious leader of the

07:54

Jewish people at that time, and the scribes, the scribes who were the ones who were supposed to know the law, who were supposed to know the

08:03

Old Testament scriptures, and how cruel and heartless and how dark their hearts actually were, and the elders of the people, again, those who were looked up to, those who were respected, yeah, these were all in conspiracy together to have

08:23

Jesus arrested, tried, and eventually put to death. And so on through verses 59 through 68, you see just how cruel they can be, creating false testimony, claiming that he's pronouncing, he's announcing blasphemy and all the rest of this stuff just to trap him, just to get him crucified.

08:48

How dark and corrupt and blind and cruel the heart of godless religious leaders can be.

08:59

Well, that's a rather sobering thought to consider today, and yet what's encouraging is that Jesus knew about it all along, and he was determined, determined to endure it all for the sake of the cross, to die for you and me.

09:23

Let's give thanks to our Savior today for what he endured in our behalf. So our

09:29

Father and our God, we are grateful today for the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice and what he endured in our behalf.

09:37

We thank you for his compassionate, kind heart, that even those who, like Judas, are so bitter toward him, he does not treat them in kind.

09:51

Thank you, Father, for the heart of our Savior, and we thank you for his sacrifice in our behalf.

09:59

Now, Lord, I pray, bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Alright, well, have a good rest of your day, and I trust