Sunday, September 11, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Verse 47, so Luke chapter 22 beginning in verse 47.

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In verses 24 through 46 we saw some 11th hour discipleship where following the

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Last Supper, just prior to Jesus being betrayed and arrested, put on trial, he has a variety of things he wants to teach his disciples, to pastor them and prepare them for what is about to change for them.

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And now we're going to turn our attention to the crisis and the variety of ways in which there is a form of rejection of Christ.

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There's more than one way to reject Christ. There's more than one way to resist, try to resist him as Lord, to turn your back on his claims of being the

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Messiah, being Savior, and we're going to see a host of them here in this last portion of Luke 22.

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Let's begin with a word of prayer and then I'll read. Father I thank you for the day. I thank you for your word. Thank you for your

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Son Jesus Christ. I thank you that you love us and have given us your Son. You've given us your

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Holy Spirit that we may know you and worship you. I pray that you would help us tonight as we read this word to love our

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Savior all the more. I pray these things in his name. Amen. Alright, beginning in verse 47.

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And while he was still speaking, behold, a multitude. And he who was called

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Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

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But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

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When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, Lord, shall we strike with the sword?

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And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said,

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Permit even this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to him,

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Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me.

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But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Having arrested him, they led him and brought him into the high priest's house.

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But Peter followed at a distance. Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together,

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Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said,

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This man was also with him. But he denied him, saying,

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Woman, I do not know him. And after a little while another saw him and said,

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You also are of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not. Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying,

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Surely this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. But Peter said,

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Man, I do not know what you are saying. Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

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And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the

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Lord, how he had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

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Now the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. And having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying,

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Prophesy. Who was the one who struck you? And many other things they blasphemously spoke against him.

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As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led him into their council, saying,

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If you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, If I tell you, you will by no means believe.

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And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go.

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Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said,

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Are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, You rightly say that I am.

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And they said, What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth.

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Now thus far in this section of the Gospel of Luke, we've been seeing a few themes.

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One of those themes is the incompatibility of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. That they're different.

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The old is needful to pass away in light of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who has come.

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That as great as Solomon or the temple may be, someone greater has come, something greater has arrived.

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And Jesus has been declaring condemnation against the stewards of the

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Old Covenant. He has pointed out the hypocrisy and unrighteousness of the scribes and the

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Pharisees, the chief priests, the elders, the Sanhedrin. He has systematically pointed out and demonstrated that they do not live according to their claims and they certainly do not live up to their responsibilities.

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And so he's been declaring judgment against them and that has been increasing the tension in the story.

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And even one of his own has gone out and made a deal with the devil.

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He has conspired with the enemies of Christ to betray Jesus as soon as it was feasible.

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When we come to this passage, we look at Judas, the actions of Judas, the actions of Peter.

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We look at Peter's denial. We look at the actions of the guards and what went on inside the house of the chief priest.

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And we see a variety of ways in which Jesus is rejected. And the first way is deception.

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And there's an element of deception throughout the rest of the rejections, but straight out of the gate what we see is a story of deception.

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Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane and he is praying and he is trying to teach his disciples about the importance of prayer, the vital element of prayer for them to be able to avoid entering into temptation.

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And while he's still speaking to his disciples, the crisis culminates. Behold a multitude.

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Suddenly there was a mob. Suddenly there was a crowd. There they were. Before they even knew it, they were surrounded by this crowd.

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Judas Iscariot knew exactly where they were going to be and he was able to betray

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Jesus to them. So the crowd suddenly shows up and we read that Judas, one of the twelve, emphasizing the betrayal, emphasizing that he was with them all this time.

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After Jesus had set apart twelve from the crowd, twelve of his followers, of many who had followed him, he set aside twelve of them.

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These are the ones he instructed carefully. These are the ones he revealed to the most. He sent them out two by two.

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He spent all of this time with them and yet Judas, one of the twelve, betrayed.

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What did he do? He went before them, he led the crowd, he directed the crowd, and he drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

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Now the other Gospels give us a little bit of the background of Jesus had given a signal to his cohort, said the one that I kissed, he's the man, arrest him.

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A helpful designation when you're in the middle of the night, things are dark, who's who, you know, you might have some tortures and so on but it's still going to be hard to see.

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And Judas Iscariot, being so familiar with the other eleven and with Jesus, would be able to go directly to Jesus and single him out for the cohort to arrest.

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So he's a necessary integral part to this betrayal, to this arrest.

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And so he drew near to Jesus to kiss him. And look what Jesus does. This is obviously deceptive.

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This is to be a warm welcome. This is, this is, this is, this is an expression of friendship, of loyalty, of kindness, of an affectionate neighbor or a brother.

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And the fact that he does this, even as he's betraying him, is a deception. Now how does Jesus handle deception?

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How does he handle it? With the question that exposes the deception outright.

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He doesn't let it lie. He doesn't live by lies, as the expression goes.

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He just exposes it. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

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There's a lot there, isn't there? He doesn't address the crowd.

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He addresses Judas, what Judas is doing. He identifies what goes on.

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He had already said, one of you will betray me. He identifies what's happening, calls it what it is.

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And look, he identifies himself as the Son of Man. This royal title of which he had been describing himself for some time.

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This is what's actually happening. Judas, you are betraying the

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Son of Man. This is what's happening. This isn't you following your dream.

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This isn't you looking for a better opportunity. This isn't you getting something you believe you deserve.

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No, you are betraying the Son of Man with a kiss. Elsewhere, Jesus says it would have been better for him not to be born than to do this and to suffer the consequences.

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So when those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, Lord, shall we strike with a sword?

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And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. I'll come back to that in a moment. And Jesus told them, permit even this, and he touched his ear and healed him.

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Notice how Jesus redirects his attention. Now he's talked to Judas, now he talks to the crowd. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs?

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When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me, but this is your hour in the power of darkness.

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So first there's a betrayal with a kiss, and then there's a betrayal with a mob. The kiss was as if Jesus was a friend, but the mob is there with swords and clubs, a big group ready to arrest

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Mr. Dangerous, Mr. Condemned. You see what they're doing?

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They're already claiming the condemnation of Christ, because all of these authoritative holy men have shown up with their weapons to arrest him.

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And you know that if somebody gets arrested, it's because they're guilty. What?

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Right? The power of the scene. Surely this many men with these credentials, surely these men with these high positions, would not have gathered such a crowd with such weapons if Jesus really wasn't guilty.

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That's the way the deception works. But notice again, what does

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Jesus do? He just asks a question and exposes the deception. You come to arrest a robber?

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What did I steal? What is the danger here? Why are you armed to the teeth?

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Why are you coming at night? You know, I saw you just the other day. All of you were there.

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We were hanging out together in the temple. Why didn't you arrest me then, in broad daylight, where there were witnesses?

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Why now? You see, with those kinds of questions, he's simply exposing, he's exposing their deceit, he's exposing their darkness, he's just demonstrating that what they're doing is illegitimate.

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And he even says, but this is your hour. Why is it their hour? Because it was

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God's will. It was God's will to this take place. And he says, and the power of darkness.

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Yeah, they came at night, but it's not just the darkness of night, it's the darkness of the enemy, it's the darkness of deception.

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That's what's going on. So he simply asks questions that exposes the deception and leaves them no place to go.

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It's a very Christian thing to do. When someone is trying to press, through their deception, a rejection of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I will claim what is right for me, what is wrong for me.

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I am my own master, I am my own rules. When they try to press their deception, deceptive worldview, in rejection of Christ, and try to support it with all manner of nonsense, it is a very

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Christian thing to do, to simply ask them an unanswerable question that exposes their folly, that they need to repent of their absurdity, them in their deception and the rejection of Christ.

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Look what Jesus did, look how he handled it, he just simply asked a question that exposed them. So, one way to reject

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Christ is through deception. Notice how deception works. It helps to pretend like you're a friend, but in fact that you're an enemy.

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Oh, I'm a fan of Jesus, but... It helps to have a crowd, you know, it helps to have a lot of crowd and authority and credential behind you, you know.

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Look at all these experts that agree with me, or look at this crowd, how can all these people being this upset be wrong?

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Look how upset they are, don't they have a point? This is how deception works, the power of darkness.

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That's one way to reject Christ. Another way, another way is this defensiveness that we see.

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We're told that Peter was the one who swung the sword. When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him,

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Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

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But Jesus answered and said, permit even this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Now, Jesus had told them you're gonna need swords.

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He had just finished telling them, if you don't have a sword, you better sell something you own and buy one, you're gonna need one.

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So, they said, Lord, we have two. He's like, all right, we're good to go. But he'd also said, he also had said that, remember how it was when

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I sent you out and I told you not to take anything extra with you to go, you know, go preach the gospel and so on and so forth?

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Well, this time, next time you go out, I want you to be fully prepared even for self -defense.

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So, that's the context he had talked about it. And he'd also said, he had set his face toward Jerusalem.

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He had told his disciples, we're going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed. He's going to be arrested by the high priest.

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He's going to suffer. He's going to die and be raised from the dead the third day. He said, this is the plan, guys, fellows.

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Peter didn't like the plan. Lord, no, no, that's a bad plan.

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And he said, get behind me, Satan. Okay. But he had told his disciples, this is the plan.

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And so, when it's unfolding, you can understand the consternation of the disciples, but in trying to fight, and Peter drawing the sword and swinging at this servant, and obviously, as it's been noted, he wasn't aiming for the ear.

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He was aiming for the neck, and the guy dodged. Obviously, he's trying to, you know, go to war with this mob.

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Jesus is saying, that's not God's will. I told you what the plan was, and you're resisting it.

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Permit even this, he says. What a contrast, wherein

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Judas kissed a friend to betray him, and Jesus touched an enemy to heal him. You see such a stark difference between the two groups here in this moment, and Jesus is showing his disciples an example here, and he says, no, we're not, we're not going to pick up swords and fight.

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He tells Pilate later on, you know, if my kingdom were of this world, my followers would pick up arms and fight.

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My kingdom's not of this world. It's in this world, not of this world. So we can become, we can become defensive, resisting

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God's will, or even going to war against our enemies, wherein

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Christ has called us to to love them and to pray for them. There's a difference, you know, between the citizens to take up arms and defend homeland against tyranny and evil.

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It's a difference between that and what Peter tried to do.

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There's even a difference between someone coming into your home in the middle of the night, and you taking up arms to defend yourself and your family and your property, and what

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Peter just tried to do right here. There's a difference between those things. Self defense and just war are biblical, thinking that your battle is against flesh and blood, when it's not against flesh and blood.

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That's not biblical. So God grant us the wisdom to see the difference. But Peter didn't like the idea of Jesus being arrested and put on trial and killed.

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He'd already resisted that before, he's resisting it now. So he's going against God's will.

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Of course, the next story is Peter's denial of his Lord. He denies him.

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It's very interesting that Peter was willing to go against a multitude who apparently were armed with swords and clubs.

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Peter drew the sword and was ready to take them all on. And then just a little bit later, he can't stand up to a servant girl.

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What goes on here? Remember that Jesus said that Satan has asked for you, Peter, to sift you as with wheat, as wheat would be sifted.

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And Jesus has also told Peter, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.

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Peter's getting sifted right now. He's getting sifted. He resists what goes on in the garden, he tries to fight when he's not supposed to, now he follows behind, he wants to see what's happening, and he gets confronted by a servant girl in the courtyard, and he can't stand up to the servant girl when he was standing up before the multitude.

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He was wrong in trying to fight the multitude, and he's wrong now in denying

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Christ when the servant girl said, you're one of them, aren't you? Another one said the same thing, you're one of them.

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And he keeps on saying no, but every time Peter opens his mouth, that thick fisherman

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Galilean accent comes tumbling out, and the last guy's like, no, you're Galilean, that's a dead giveaway, you're one of them.

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He denies him the third time. Peter is ensnared in the fear of man here.

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He's ensnared in the fear of man. He's not willing to be identified with his

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Lord as he said he would be, not willing to be arrested and put to death as he said he would be, that he would go down to the death for his

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Lord. All of a sudden he's denying, all of his courage is gone. And then after the third denial and the rooster crowed, there's some arrangement here on the architecture where Peter's in the courtyard and the

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Lord was taken inside the house. Was he being led out of the house just then?

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Was he put up on a platform somewhere where Peter could see him?

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Was Jesus taken upon the roof of the house of the chief priests where they had more room to stand and to have their trial?

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We don't know exactly what the physical arrangement was, but it was one in which that after the rooster crowed and Peter had denied his

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Lord three times, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. What a piercing look that is.

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You feel it, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord. The look of his

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Lord reminded him of the word of his Lord, and Peter instantly was a broken man.

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He had failed his promises, he had failed his Lord, he denied his Savior, he was a broken man.

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But the Lord he had denied was the Lord who prayed for him, the

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Lord who interceded for him, the Lord who was even then suffering for him, the

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Lord who would soon die for him, the Lord who would be raised for him, and the

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Lord who would seek him out and restore him. So in this we see who wins that tug -of -war.

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The Lord wins, despite Peter's failure.

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There is forgiveness. And there's another way to reject Christ. We see that in the derision of the guards, verses 63 through 65.

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Notice the ridiculous nature of this. The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him, and having blindfolded him they struck him on the face and asked him saying,

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Prophesy, who is the one who struck you? And many other things they blasphemously spoke against him.

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It's kind of blasphemy and profanity is still around today, where because of the authority claims of Christ, Jesus himself is an offense to so many.

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And so this derision comes in as they belittle and blaspheme Christ. They create some ridiculous scenario, and when it's obvious that Christ will not be ridiculous and fit their mold, they then reject him, they profane him, they deride him.

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This happens a great deal, a very blasphemous and profane kind of rejection.

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And it's clear that folks like that, you've perhaps listened to debates of atheists or people who've rejected

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Christ, and they they mock him and profane him, say ridiculous things about him, and it's simply mockery, simply blasphemy, and it's atrocious.

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So derision is one form of rejection, as well as denial. We saw

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Peter being defensive against the will of God, also the deception. Also derision is a form of rejection.

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Lastly, this, this, the damning response that Jesus exposes at the last.

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So, verse 66, as soon as it was day, so after a night of all this, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together.

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So here are the leaders, here are the experts, and they come together and lead him into their counsel, let him into their

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Sanhedrin, saying, if you are the Christ, tell us. Isn't that interesting?

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They know the claim. They know what he's been saying. They know because the people have heard it, and that's what they're saying.

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They're not interested in hearing it. Other, only other thing they want to do is to hear something that they can condemn him for.

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They don't really want to know, you know. These kinds of questions get asked a lot of Christians.

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Questions like, so is Christ the only way? Tell me, right?

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Because as soon as you say it, I'm going to condemn you for saying it, alright?

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So is homosexuality a sin? Tell me. I want you to tell me that so I can condemn you immediately, right?

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That kind of, that kind of damning attitude. So he said, if you are the

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Christ, tell us. Well, but he said to them, if I tell you, you will by no means believe. See, what he does, he just exposes the reality of it.

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You don't want to know, you don't want to believe. And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go.

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Look, there's no point in continuing with this conversation. You've already made up your mind. You've brought me here to condemn me, and there's nothing

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I'm going to say that's going to convince you otherwise. In other words, he's saying you're reprobate. You're too far gone, alright?

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What did he tell his disciples about preaching the gospel? They were to go from village to village. He said, if you go into a village and you get rejected, and you're preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and they're not going to hear you, they're not going to accept you, and you don't have any welcome there, then you just wipe the dust off your feet and you move on to the next town.

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You're not going to have time to make it through all the cities and the villages of Israel before the

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Son of Man comes in judgment. You don't have that much time. You just wipe off your feet and move on. Don't cast your pearls before swine.

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And here he says, verse 69, hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. You see what's going on?

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Here are the chief priests, the elders, the scribes. Here's the council. They're saying, we're the authority.

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And Jesus says, no, the Son of Man's the authority. And he's at the right, and he's going to be at the right hand of the power of God.

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Verse 70, then they all said, you then, the Son of God. So he said to them, you rightly say that only do we need, for we have heard it from his own mouth.

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Him to tell the truth. Hear it.

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But as soon as he said the truth, that was all the proof they needed to condemn him to death. Interesting, isn't it?

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Christ exposes their hearts, and then when, it was just too much for them, you know?

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It was just too much for them. He said, well you said it first. You said it. Jesus was just too wise for them.

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They are of the darkness, and they love the darkness, they embrace the darkness. This is, you know,

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God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. But this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

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They hate the light, and they don't want to come to the light for fear that their evil deeds will be exposed. And here is the light of the world, and they've got him right in front of them, and all they can do is condemn him for telling the truth.

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And that's, and that kind of damning rejection. It's amazing that it doesn't take much to be condemned by various world religions, or to be condemned by any number of pagan mindsets.

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You just have to simply say the truth. Alright? Jesus of Nazareth is the

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Christ, the Son of the Living God. Born of the Virgin Mary, lived a perfect, righteous life. Died upon the cross, was raised the third day.

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He's ascended to the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in victory. There's no other way to the

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Father except through Christ. What the Bible says is true, and is perfectly accurately true, and is sufficient for all our faith and practice today.

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You know? Wow. I'm going to jail if I'm in Canada. It doesn't take long.

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This, this kind of damning rejection simply because Christ and his followers tell the truth.

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These are various ways that Christ is rejected in the moment of crisis.

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It's a crisis moment as they arrest Christ, they put him on trial, they're trying to, they're trying to destroy him and kill him.

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They've been working on this for a very long time, and there's various ways that Christ is rejected through deception, through being defensive of this denial, through derision, and through this damning attitude.

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But God, God worked all this together for the good of his

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Son dying upon the cross for our salvation. You know,

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Peter was restored. Peter was restored and was a huge blessing to the early church.

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All manner of Jews who were, who were priests and some of the scribes, we read next, even members of the council such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, repented of their sins and believed in Christ, even though there were all manner of expressions of rejection of him throughout this entire scene.

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So we see the grace of God and we can rejoice in that. Any questions or thoughts about our passage here tonight?

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Yeah. He does that to us. He's faithful to do that to us. Yeah. Sometimes it's difficult, but it needs to be done.

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Satan asked to sift him like wheat. Jesus said, okay. And after it was all over,

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I can't, I can't hardly imagine, but it's, you know, what did Jesus say back to Satan? Check out my wonderful wheat.

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You know, we know, we all know what you did to Peter, but look what I did with Peter. Yes, Bill.

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Yes, in the Gospel of John. They did. Yeah. When they, when they were confirming his identity in the garden.

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Yeah. Alright, well let's close our time together tonight by singing the