“Overestimated Loyalty” – FBC Morning Light (11/13/2024)

Well a good Wednesday morning. Today we continue reading in each of the four Gospels in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and then John chapter 13. We're working our way through the Passion Week and we are now in the final hours before Jesus is going to be betrayed by Judas.

Remember yesterday we talked about how Jesus revealed to them that one of the disciples was going to betray him. At first they were all perplexed about this and disturbed, wondering, you know, is it I?

Could I do this? Which then led to a more of a positive self-answer to the question, well no, I couldn't do this, and that led them to a debate as to who was the greatest. Remember that? And Jesus said the one that's the greatest is the one who serves.

Well then Jesus says, and I want to read the account in Matthew chapter 26, Jesus tells them, he says, all of you are going to stumble because of me tonight. He says this in verse 31. He says, it's written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Jesus knows he's going to be stricken here in just a little while. And then he says, after I've been raised I will go before you to Galilee. Now there's a lot they didn't pick up. They didn't pick up this thing about being raised, the idea of the crucifixion that didn't enter into their minds and so on, but what they did pick up on is, all of you are going to be made to stumble because of me this night.

Well, Jesus is now really seriously questioning their individual greatness. He says, all of you are going to stumble. One of you is going to betray. All of you are going to stumble. Well, right away, that prompts Peter to boast about his personal greatness, that no, he's greater than all the rest of them, because he says this, even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble.

But here's the interesting thing, at the end of verse, in verse 35, even after Jesus says, look, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. And Peter said, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.

This is how great I am. I will go to the death with you if I have to. But then what's interesting is that the rest of the disciples, they're not going to just sit back and let Peter boast that he's greater than the rest of them.

No, not at all. So what do they do? The end of verse 35 says, and so said all the disciples, Peter's not any greater than we are. I'll go to the death with you. Well, so will I, and so will I. And they all said this.

They all said that they will go to the death. Here's the thing. I think probably most of us tend to overestimate our loyalty to, our love for, and our devotion to Christ. I think most of us do. I think we tend to underestimate how weak and vulnerable we really are.

You know, there's one of the hymn writers, he says in the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, he says, and I think it's the third stanza, he says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

Well, there was a hymn writer who was in tune with his own heart and had a pretty good sense of just how weak he was, not overestimating his loyalty and neither underestimating the power of indwelling sin.

And I want to challenge us today to be careful in this very matter, not to be so proud and boastful and self-assured that we would say, I would never do something like that. I would never stray from the Savior.

I would, you know, instead say, Lord, I am prone to wander, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, take, seal it, seal it for thy courts above, the hymn writer goes on to say. In other words, I think we need to realize that it is only by the grace of God and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, as he grants such staying power, that we will remain faithful and true and loyal to our Savior.

And oh may he be gracious to us, oh may he grant us by his Spirit that staying power. Deliver us, deliver us from the arrogant, proud, boasting that has an attitude that says, I could never. So our Heavenly Father, I pray that we would all realize just how absolutely dependent we are upon your grace and the enabling power of your Spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday and I hope you get over the hump as we head toward the weekend. God bless.