(Matthew) ch.26:33-27:31 — Zac Poonen

Peter’s Boastfulness and the Need for Brokenness

Let's turn now to Matthew 26 and verse 33. Jesus had just spoken to his disciples of how he was going to the cross and how they would all desert him in that moment of his being captured, according to the prophecy in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7, which Jesus quoted here in Matthew 26, 31.

And on hearing this, Peter quickly replied to Jesus and said to him, Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Here was Peter comparing himself with the other disciples and saying, I'm not like them.

It's the language of the Pharisee who looked at the tax collector praying in the temple. We read of in Luke 18 verse 8 onwards, I thank you, Father, that I'm not like other men. Adulterers, thieves are like this tax collector.

That's the spirit that we see here. Well, Lord, even if these other ten forsake you, I will not. I'm better than them. And it was that spirit which Jesus wanted to break because he knew that Peter would be useless until he was broken.

Jesus’ Prophecy of Peter’s Denial

Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, verse 34, This very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny me three times. Not just once, and it's not going to take long. Within the next twelve hours, you're going to deny me three times.

And that will break you, Peter. God allows us to be broken in the areas in which we are most boastful. In the areas in which we think we are strong. It's our strong points that God seeks to break. Otherwise we'll never be useful in his service.

Judas Iscariot was an unbroken person. Peter denied the Lord, as we know, later on. But he wept. He was broken at the end of it. And that's why he became the mighty apostle that he became. He could have also gone the way of Judas Iscariot.

It's brokenness that makes the difference. And God wants to break the strong points in your life so that, as a broken man, you might be able to serve him effectively. And we read here, it wasn't only Peter who said, Even if I die with you, I will not deny you.

We read in verse 35, Peter said to him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. He said, Lord, you don't know what you're talking about. You think I'm going to deny you three times? I'm not going to.

And it says in the last part of verse 35, all the disciples said the same thing too. All eleven said to Jesus, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. But it was Peter alone who finally denied.

It was Peter alone who needed that brokenness more than the others. Because Peter said something more than the others. They all said, We will not deny you, even if we have to die. But Peter said something more.

He said, Lord, even if these other people fall away, I will not. He wasn't just making a statement of devotion. He was comparing himself with others. And that was where he was in a more serious spiritual condition than the others.

Even if all men deny you, I will not. And so he needed to be broken more than the others. And then Jesus came with them, verse 36, to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.

Jesus in Gethsemane: Fellowship, Sorrow, and Prayer

And he took with him Peter, this person who he knew was going to deny him three times within the next twelve hours. He says, Come and pray with me. He saw Peter's heart. His heart was right. His heart was good.

He was unaware of his own limitations. He wasn't a Pharisee in the sense that Pharisee was like the one who prayed in the temple like I just mentioned. He spoke that language, but deep down there was a heart that wanted the truth.

A heart that wanted to be freed from that Phariseeism. And he was freed later on. And God saw that difference. Jesus saw that difference. He calls Peter and he called James and John. And these were the three closest to him with whom he could have the closest fellowship among the eleven.

Jesus can have closer fellowship with some of his disciples than with others. And he said to them, he began to be grieved and distressed. He said to them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.

There was an honesty about Jesus. He was a human being at that time. It was God manifest in the flesh. And the weaknesses and limitations of our flesh were there very much. So that he was distressed and grieved.

God is never grieved or distressed. But because Jesus had taken upon himself the limitations of man in his flesh, he was grieved and distressed, grieved to the point of death. And he was honest about it.

So that his disciples would know that he had come in their flesh. And that he had overcome in their flesh too. Remain here and keep watch with me, he said. Pray with me. We see something beautiful there.

Even Jesus needed fellowship in prayer. Sometimes we are too proud to acknowledge our need to others. Jesus said, Pray with me. And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed. They couldn't go where he went.

He was praying concerning things which were far too deep for them to understand. But he wanted them to be there and stand with him in prayer behind. He went a little beyond them. Because now he was preparing to bear the sins of the world.

He said, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as thou wilt. What was that cup? That cup could mean only one thing. It cannot refer to the physical suffering of the cross or physical death.

Because Jesus was not afraid of that. There are disciples of Jesus who have gone singing to the stake. And singing when they were thrown to the lions in the Roman arenas in the first century and second century.

They were not afraid of death. Jesus was certainly not afraid of physical death. There was only one thing that Jesus feared and longed to avoid. And that was that break of fellowship with his father. Which he knew would come if he bore the sins of the world.

He knew it all along. But as he approached that moment, it was so terrible for him to contemplate that he who had such wonderful fellowship with the father for all eternity would have to lose that fellowship for three hours on the cross when he suffered hell and bore the sins of the world.

And the father would forsake him on the cross. We don't understand what suffering that is because we don't appreciate fellowship with God as much as Jesus did. Very often a person can have a grudge against another brother.

His fellowship with God is broken. But it doesn't seem to bother him for days and months and sometimes years. Well, obviously such people can't understand the suffering that Jesus was going through here.

A person can have a dirty thought and it doesn't disturb him. His fellowship with his father is broken. And it doesn't disturb him. It can go on a whole day like that. Well, such people can never understand the depth of suffering Jesus went through here.

He had had fellowship with the father for all eternity. And he knew that that was the most glorious thing in the whole universe. There was nothing to equal it. Absolutely nothing created could equal the glory of fellowship with his father.

And now he was going to lose it. Jesus shrank from that break of fellowship with the father. What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means to appreciate and value fellowship with the father in the same way.

So that we shrink from anything that breaks it. Shrink from sin or a break of fellowship with another brother. Or a grudge or an unforgiving attitude which breaks fellowship with the father. This is to follow Jesus.

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He had been praying for one hour concerning this one theme. Lord, father, don't let my fellowship with you be broken. Is there some other way out of it?

And he found them sleeping. And he said, you couldn't keep watch with me for one hour? Keep watching and praying, he said, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

His flesh was weak too. That's why he needed to pray. He had come in our flesh. And he needed strength that would come only through prayer. And he told them, you've got the same flesh. And you can have strength only if you pray.

You can be willing. The spirit is willing. You can say, oh, I'll never deny you. But unless you pray and get strength, you will deny me. And they slept. But he didn't sleep. He went away a second time.

And prayed, saying, my father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, I will be done. He prayed a second time. He came back and found them sleeping. For their eyes were heavy. He left them again and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

This teaches us that there's nothing wrong in praying for the same thing with the same words three times or thirty times. If it comes from our heart, if it's not a meaningless repetition, if it's not mere words spoken without faith or without burden.

He prayed three times. The burden was so great. And it was a long prayer meeting. The first time itself it was one hour. And then he came to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping? Take your rest.

Behold, the hour is at hand and the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us be going. The one who betrays me is at hand. He had warned them. Be careful. Watch and pray. Temptation is going to come.

But they didn't take it seriously. Keep watching and praying, he said in verse forty-one. That you may not enter into temptation. That you may not fall when temptation comes. But that you can be strong.

He prayed and he became strong. He prayed and he was willing to give up that most precious thing of fellowship with the Father. In order to find a way by which he could save us and bring us into fellowship with the Father.

Judas’ Betrayal and Jesus’ Divine Love

Let's turn today to Matthew 26 and verse 47. This is in the garden of Gethsemane, just after Jesus had finished his time of prayer. And while he was still speaking to his disciples, Peter, James and John, who were sleeping.

Waking them up. Behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up. Accompanied by a great multitude with swords and clubs from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he was betraying them. Betraying him.

Gave them a sign saying, Whomever I shall kiss, he is the one. Seize him. And immediately he came to Jesus and said, Hail Rabbi! And kissed him. It's very interesting to note that these Roman soldiers needed somebody to identify Jesus at night.

He was not easily identifiable. Of course in the daytime it would be different. They could recognize his face. But they did not want to capture him during the daytime because the people would raise an uproar.

They wanted to capture him at night. But he was not easily identifiable at night because he was just like other men. All these pictures of Jesus with a halo around his head are a deception. If he had a halo around his head, those chief priests wouldn't have needed Judas Iscariot to identify him.

Jesus became a man just like the rest of us. So completely identified with us that he was unrecognizable from other men in the darkness. His identification was so thorough and complete. The purity he had was not seen in any halo around his head or in any glow in his body.

But in his heart that was totally clean and good and pure. And that is where the real glory lay in him. And that is where the real glory lies even in his disciples today. Those who follow him. And so Judas comes to Jesus and betrays him with a kiss.

And Jesus, his immediate reaction to this one who is betraying him, this one to whom he had been so good for three and a half years, this one whom he had not exposed for three and a half years, this one concerning whom he had not backbitten to the other eleven in three and a half years, this one to whom he had been so faithful, this one who had cheated him of his money for so many years and concerning which he had never complained, this one to whom Jesus had been so good.

And when he comes to betray Jesus, what is Jesus' spontaneous reaction? It is friend. And there we see the tremendous depth of love that there was in Jesus even for Judas Iscariot. Friend, do what you have come for.

Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. The love of God is different from human love in this sense that human love needs a response to continue loving. Human love loves those who love in return.

Human love wanes and disappears when it is confronted with evil and hatred in return. But God's love is unchanging. It is not affected by the response. It does not matter how people behave towards God.

God still continues to love them. And we cannot understand the depths of God's love until we see how he loves his enemies. It was when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden and man became an enemy of God that we could see the greatest manifestation of God's love in that he sent his son to die for us on the cross.

While we were enemies, God reconciled us to himself through the death of his son. That is divine love. Anything less than this is human love. And very often when Christians speak about love, they are only referring to human love.

When they say they love one another, what they mean is we love those who love us in return. That's human. That's found even in human clubs, non-religious clubs. But divine love is seen here that it can love when there is no love returned.

Not only that, it can love when hatred is returned for its love. And we can say that we see the greatness and the depth of Jesus' love in his attitude towards Judas Iscariot at this time, in his attitude to an enemy who was betraying him.

After all the good that he had done to him, he calls him friend. Jesus' attitude is still, you're my friend. You're welcome to come back, even though you betrayed me. The pity is that Judas didn't come back to him.

And there's a lesson that we can learn, for we shall also face similar experiences on earth. People betraying us, denying us, returning our good with evil. Being ungrateful for all the good that we've done to them and for them.

And people can be evil to us without any cause at all. And having a flesh with lusts that seek for revenge, we all know what it feels like within when people treat us like that. And there we need to cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit if we want to perfect holiness in the fear of God and follow Jesus.

So that in a moment of trial and temptation, when someone like that confronts us, our whole being will rise up with this attitude that Jesus had to call him friend. And then we read further. One of those who were with Jesus, we know that was Peter, reached and drew out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

Peter’s Violent Reaction and Jesus’ Submission to Scripture

Jesus had warned Peter to watch and pray, verse 41, otherwise he would fall in temptation. And now that temptation came and Peter fell. Instead of reacting in a divine way, he reacted in a human way. That is to fall in temptation.

That when you're tempted, you react like a child of Adam and not a child of God. Then you have fallen. The children of Adam will hit back when they're hit. And that's exactly what Peter did. He took out his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

But Jesus, with the same flesh that Peter had, had watched and prayed. And he said to Peter, put your sword back into its place, for all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen this way? Jesus was saying, I don't need you to defend me. There are seventy-two thousand angels in heaven whom the Father has put, that will put at my disposal.

If I just ask Him, if I even now say, Father, save me from these people, He will send seventy-two thousand angels to defend me and they'll wipe out these Roman soldiers. It's not because I'm not able to defend myself.

It's because I don't want to defend myself, Jesus said. I want to fulfill the Scriptures. It's more important for me to fulfill the word of God than it is to escape suffering. Here's a little attitude that we see in Jesus, in verses fifty-three and fifty-four.

It's more important for me to fulfill God's word than to escape suffering. And we can examine ourselves and see if that's our attitude to the word of God. Is it more important for us to obey God's word, or is it more important for us to escape personal discomfort and suffering?

Here is the test of our discipleship, dear friends. When it comes to personal discomfort and personal inconvenience and personal suffering, are we still willing to follow God's word and obey it, whatever the cost?

Or do we seek defense? Do we seek to defend ourselves? Do we pray that God will send His angels, or the equivalent of that, to protect us from people who hurt us? In the Old Testament, God sent angels to protect His people.

We read, one angel came and wiped out a whole army of Assyria in Hezekiah's time. But in the New Covenant, those who follow Jesus are not protected from these enemies. God allows His children to be killed, because thereby He manifests a greater glory of those who are faithful unto death.

Jesus says, be faithful unto death, and I'll give you a crown of life. We read from another scripture that Jesus healed the ear of this man, whose ear was cut off by Peter. And there we see Jesus' attitude.

To see the depth of His love, you had to become His enemy. You had to become Jesus' enemy in order to see the depth of His love. And these people who hated Him and wanted to capture Him and destroy Him, they saw the greatness of His love, that He would heal that ear cut off in anger by one of His disciples.

And then Jesus said to the multitudes, verse 55, Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as though I were a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me.

Why have you come out with swords and clubs as though I'm going to fight and defend Myself against you? I'm not. They thought He was going to fight and His disciples would fight and defend Him against them.

But He was not interested in that. We know that Jesus did tell the disciples in Luke chapter 22 to take a sword with them. And that's where Peter misunderstood what the Lord meant. Jesus had told them in Luke 22 .36, after the Lord's table, the Last Supper, He who doesn't have a sword, let him sell his robe and buy one.

And they said, Lord, there are two swords with us, verse 38 of Luke 22, and He said, that's enough. But what were those swords for? Not to fight and hurt others? But if people come to hurt you, to protect yourself, but not to hurt them in return.

Yes, we can protect ourselves if people come to hurt us, but we're not to hurt them in return. That's what we see here. We don't have to stand defenseless. We can protect ourselves. It's a question of what the sword is used for.

And then Jesus said to the multitudes, I'm not going to defend Myself, neither are My disciples. All these things are taking place, verse 56, that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled. And the disciples left Him and fled.

And thereto the scripture was fulfilled. Let's turn today to Matthew 26 and verse 57. And those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together.

False Witnesses and the Danger of Religious Hypocrisy

But Peter also followed Him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Now the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order that they might put Him to death.

Here we see the depth of evil to which religious people can sink. We can understand godless atheists, immoral people who do not know God, who do not have the scriptures, seeking to obtain false testimony to condemn a righteous man.

But can we believe that people who hold the Bible in their hands and who teach from the Bible would do such a thing? But that is exactly what we see here. Who were the chief priests? They were the ones who were teaching Israel God's law.

They were the ones who had the Bible, Genesis to Malachi, with them. They were the ones who were the leaders of the people and leading people to God in prayer and praise and in sacrifice. And the council, the Sanhedrin, supposed to be the elders of God's people.

And there we see the depth of evil to which these men had sunk, that when they knew they could not condemn Jesus any other way, they were willing to get false witnesses against Him in order that they might put Him to death.

And they did not find it. We read in verse 60, Even though many false witnesses came forward, but later on two came forward and said, This man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.

And the high priest stood up and said to him, Do you make no answer? What is it that these men are testifying against you? The high priest knew very well that these people were all telling lies. But here he is, standing in the name of God, condemning an innocent, righteous man.

These things are written for our instruction and our warning. Man has not changed in these two thousand years. He has become worse. It's possible even today for people to hold the Bible, to be elders and leaders among God's people, and to do things more unrighteous and more shameful and more sinful than the atheists and the worst heathen in the world would ever do.

To seek to condemn the righteous, that is happening even today in Christendom. For remember, the people who wanted Jesus to be crucified, when He came to earth, were the leaders of the one nation on earth that had the true scriptures, the Jews.

It was not the Roman soldiers who wanted Jesus to be crucified. It was the leaders who had the Bible in their hands, who had the true religion, but who didn't have the life, who had the true scriptures in their hands, but who didn't have the life.

And that's a serious and a severe warning to all who call themselves Christians today, who thump their Bibles and proclaim at the top of their voices that they believe in the Bible. Do you realize that?

You can have the Bible in your hand and you may not have life. It's possible to have the Bible in your hand and to be as evil and as criminal as those people who crucified Jesus. It's very easy to say, like the Pharisees said, Oh, we wouldn't have done that if it were us.

Matthew 23, verse 30. Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you say, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

But they didn't realize that they were doing it in their day. They shed the blood of the one prophet of God that was in their midst, and yet they said we wouldn't have acted like our fathers. Don't be so quick to say that if you were there, you would not have crucified Jesus.

If you're not walking in humility and brokenness and purity and that divine love that shows goodness to people who are evil, then we're walking in the footsteps of those cheap priests and scribes who crucified Jesus.

Oh, what a need there is among Christians, among those who hold the Bible and who preach most loudly from the Bible, to walk in brokenness and humility and divine love. That's what we learn from here.

The depth of evil to which people can sink, holding a Bible in their hand, is a warning. And the history of Christendom in the last 20 centuries is another warning. People have fought with one another in the name of Christ.

They've gone on crusades, killing people in the Middle Ages in the name of Christ. And unimaginable evils in the times of the Inquisition in the name of Christ, people being tortured and killed in the name of Christ.

And even today, in the name of Christ, perhaps not killing, but other things equally evil. Condemning, backbiting, so many things done in the name of Christ. All these are the followers of the high priests and the scribes and the Pharisees, holding a Bible in their hand and condemning the righteous.

Jesus’ Silence Before False Accusations

And the high priest stood up and said to him, Do you make no answer? What is it these men are testifying against you? Verse 63,. But Jesus kept silent. Jesus was silent. And that's the lesson for us. When we are accused falsely, it's no use defending ourselves, because they'll produce other false witnesses.

Jesus kept silent. It's no use arguing with people who have no ear for the truth. There are times, perhaps, when we need to clear our name. But the Bible says two things. In Proverbs 26, verses 4 and 5.

They are put together. And it's very interesting. It looks like a contradiction, but it isn't. Proverbs 26, verse 4 says, Don't answer a fool according to his folly. The high priest here was a fool. And Jesus would not answer him according to his folly.

Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. But then it says in verse 5, quite the opposite. Answer a fool, it says, as his folly deserves, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Is that a contradiction?

No, it isn't. There are situations where we need to be silent. And there are other situations where we need to speak. And the Holy Spirit alone can give us that discernment as to which situation is which.

We can't live by the law, but if we are led by the Spirit, we'll know when to speak and when to be silent. And here was the time to be silent. When all these people accused him and said all types of things wrongly against him, he just kept quiet.

And then the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, Matthew 26, verse 63, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. And now it was time to answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

And Jesus spoke and said to him, You have said that yourself. That's right. Nevertheless, I tell you hereafter, I'll tell you something more, he said. You'll see the Son of Man sitting in the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

And the high priest couldn't believe that. They couldn't believe that this simple carpenter from Nazareth, as they thought he was, was the Son of God. People can't recognize the true servants of God because they are so simple and so unimpressive in their appearance.

And the high priest tore his robes, signifying disgust. He said, He has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have heard the blasphemy yourselves. What do you think? He was determined to condemn him.

And when a man is determined to condemn you, he has no ear for the truth. He'll pick on anything you say in order to find fault with you. We can learn things from here. And what was Jesus' reaction? He said nothing more.

He spoke the truth and left it there. He didn't argue. He didn't defend himself. He testified as to who he was and the hope for the future. And that's what we also testify to with meekness, what we are, children of God, the hope we have in the future.

Beyond that, we do not argue or reason. And then the high priest asked the Sanhedrin, What do you think he deserves? And they are determined to kill him, so they said he is deserving of death. And then we read, They spat in his face and beat him with their fists and others slapped him.

And what was Jesus' reaction to all this? He just kept quiet. He was silent. He had power, but he would not use it. When it concerned the glory of God and the temple being defiled by people making money in the name of religion, he was fiery and bold to make a whip and chase them out.

But when people hurt his body and his dignity and his reputation and anything concerning himself, he never defended himself. Learn from this, child of God. Learn from this, dear friends. What is it that should concern us and stir us to anger when God's house is defiled, when people make money or a name for themselves in the name of Jesus Christ?

That should infuriate us. But when we are hurt ourselves, it's time for us to keep quiet and to bear it silently. Then we follow Jesus. And they said to him, Prophesy to us, you Christ, who is the one who will hit you.

They despised spiritual gifts. We are surrounded by people who despise the gift of prophecy and the other gifts that God gives us. But do we prove to them that we are right? No. We manifest the glory of God in silent endurance and thus Jesus Christ is glorified through us and his glory is manifested through us to them.

Peter’s Denial and the Weakness of the Flesh

And that will be their condemnation better than if we could ever say anything to them with our lips. Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, and verse 69. This is referring to the time when Jesus was being tried in the high priest's court.

And Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a certain servant girl came to him and said, You too were with Jesus, the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you are talking about.

What do we learn from this? The truth of what we heard from Jesus earlier in verse 41. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. When Peter testified boldly to Jesus, even if all men deny you, I will not.

He was sincere. He really meant it. He really believed it with all his heart. And he really desired to stand true to the Lord. The spirit was willing. There was absolutely no lack of willingness there.

The spirit was 100 willing. But what Peter did not realize was the truth of those other words that Jesus spoke. The flesh is weak. And that's the truth we don't realize either. Our spirit is willing.

Our spirit is willing to pray, but the flesh is weak. Our spirit is willing to sacrifice and deny ourselves and do many things for the Lord, but the flesh is weak. It's not enough that we recognize that the spirit is willing.

We need to recognize that the flesh is weak. And that's why we need the Holy Spirit's strength. That's why we need to seek God for power that we might have strength to stand true to our convictions so that that which the spirit is willing for will be manifested in the flesh.

We read about Jesus in John chapter 1 that the word became flesh. John 1 .14. And we beheld the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth in that flesh. In that weak flesh, which you and I have, Jesus came and what was manifested was not human weakness for the glory of the Father.

But that was because Jesus recognized the weakness of the flesh and sought for the power of the Holy Spirit in human weakness. He leaned upon His Father. That was the secret of His life. But the disciples did not know that.

Peter did not recognize it. And that is why in the moment of temptation when a servant girl this is not a high priest this is just an ordinary servant girl identifies him as a follower of Jesus and he is immediately his immediate response is No, I don't know what you are talking about.

And when he had gone out to the gateway another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. Peter was scared for his life. He was scared that he would be killed.