Law & Grace - Matthew 26:36-75 Betrayal to denial

We are, as of this study today, in the 26th chapter of Matthew. We're just now in the last three chapters of the book, finishing chapter 26 today. It's going to take us from the Garden of Gethsemane, from the point we're at now, to what is called the Great Commission before we're done. Time-wise, in terms of the calendar, we're going to continue studying through the Gospel of Matthew through the middle of July, unless the Lord comes, in which case this is all canceled. If you come and there's nobody here, you're in trouble.

Anyway, our exploration of law and grace is going to continue. with a series of New Testament passages. After that, in other words, once we get through with Matthew, just like we had selected Old Testament passages, we're also going to be looking at select New Testament passages that shed light on the subject of law and grace. Even going through the book of Matthew, we've chosen it among the four Gospels because it is the one that focuses most upon a message to the Jews. It was written with the Jews in mind. And I think in that sense gives us the greatest contrast and perspective on law and grace. So we'll continue on till we're through with Matthew and then continue the series after that with select New Testament topics and passages.

As we examined last Sunday, we ended with Jesus and his disciples talking as they were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. The Garden of Gethsemane today looks something like this, although at the time they were proceeding at nighttime, and it was a moonlit night, but nonetheless nighttime. From there we'll read about Judas betraying Christ in this garden, and see Christ interrogated by Caiaphas, finishing with Peter denying repeatedly that he knows Christ.

Again and again, I do not know the man. And so that's what we'll see in today's passage. It will be a matter of leading up to what to the disciples is a dark and confusing time. They are baffled to the max in order to try to understand what is going on. What is happening? What is Jesus telling us?

As last week, and we'll probably continue it on for a week or two, there is a map on the front page. And the map shows Jerusalem and New Testament times. And on that map, we have identified some of the key places. In addition, the path between one place and the next and the numbered sequence is also shown on there.

We have here, for example, in the southwest quarter what is likely to be considered to be the upper room where Jesus met with the disciples the last Passover handoff to the Lord's table. The Garden of Gethsemane here over on the opposite corner is highlighted.

A Gethsemane, as we pointed out last week, is just a word for an olive press. They would press out the olives in either a vertical press where it's slid up and down as you see on the right or kind of a rotating piece of machinery, either way to press the oil out of the olives. That was their way of getting oil. That was their equivalent of Chevron. Okay.

This is a shot of the Garden of Gethsemane today. As you can see, some of these trees are quite old, but they are, in fact, somewhere around 900 years old. So they weren't present there during the time when Jesus was there, but it is the same location. Here's another shot of the garden as it's kept, and a little closer on some of the very old trees that are there. Jesus, as he came to the Garden of Gethsemane, said, my soul is deeply grieved. He asked them to sit, and he actually gave them a designated area to sit, to sit here. And then he took Peter and James and John, as he often did, just three of them, and took them a little farther along, and then he went even farther still.

At that point, he prayed to the Father that this cup might pass. And of course, that was a figure of speech for saying this suffering that I'm about to go through, but that the Father's will might be done. Each time asking, might this cup pass, but deferring to the Father's will in each case.

He came back and he found the disciples sleeping. Oh, guys, don't you understand what's going on? this is a moment I need you to pray I need you to pray not just for me but for yourselves but they're sleeping very sleepy after all it's been a big night and a big meal and they've had four cups of diluted wine and sleeping seems like the thing to do he urged Peter to watch and pray particularly I also mentioned John 17 even put that as a corner up in the corner item there.

The reason for that is because John 17 records more of the content of the prayer. A fantastic passage. It's fantastic because it shows the intimacy between the Father and the Son, which by the way is to be broken in a matter of hours. It shows that intimacy even more so Christ prays not just for the disciples but for you and for me. And Christ prays with an understanding that we are identified with him. Fantastic, deep chapter. Highly recommend it. Nonetheless, we'll continue with our central focus on the book of Matthew here.

Jesus went and spoke to the Father again, twice more, asking that the cup might pass, but leaving it to the Father's will. Afterwards, each time, Jesus came back to the disciples only to find them nodding off. Very, very sleepy. So this happened now three times, as the book of Matthew records. And Jesus says, now is the time. Behold, wake up. It's time. They're here. What is happening next is beginning. The soldiers are showing up. It's about to take place. We're turning a corner. Now, Judas is going to earn his 30 pieces of silver.

He's going to betray Christ. Now, you might wonder, well, why did they even have to pay him to do anything? Why does he get involved? Think about it. You want an insider to say, here is the right circumstance. You don't want to have Jesus arrested with a whole bunch of people out of the temple. That gets out of control too easily. And so that's not a good time. So we need somebody who knows where Jesus is going to be, and to pick a good time and to get this thing all arranged. Because after all, we've got hundreds of people. We've got to get lined up here for the arrest, and we've got to get it all ducks in a row.

So because of that, it's very valuable and important for them to have Judas to be the one. Because when you've got 600 people coming to arrest Jesus, They don't all know who he is. And so if Judas can come up and they know the sign, the signal, that's the guy, then, oh, okay, all right, we know what to do now. So Judas comes up to Jesus and by prearranged signal for those who came with him, he kissed Jesus on the cheek.

Jesus responds by, why you stupid, no, he says, friend. Do what you must do. It amazes me as I look at the accounts. The disciples, all the way up to this point, were clueless as to what was going on. Even not realizing that it was Judas that was going to betray them. Christ loved Judas that much. After all, Christ was within hours going to die for Judas' sins. Christ loved Judas that much that the disciples, up to this moment, did not know what was going on. Jesus calls Judas friend.

John 18.3 gives us an additional insight.

It tells us this crowd of soldiers and others that accompanied them was a cohort that came with Judas. It would mean that a large crowd came to arrest Jesus. That word cohort would mean somewhere around 600 in number. Can you imagine? We're going to arrest Jesus and 12 disciples and we need 600 people to do that. Right? That makes a lot of sense. They came with torches and lanterns and swords. Well equipped.

In John 18.6, a very interesting and fascinating insight, Jesus says, who are you seeking? Jesus of Nazareth, and he says I am he and it says they fell backwards But he didn't just say I am he he used the words that God used at the burning bush The Greek ego me I am he I am in fact God I Am in fact God is showing up here I And John 19, 10, 11 clues us in that it was Peter who pulled out the sword. He was going to make good on his promise to die, if need be, with Christ for this great cause. So Peter, and you know, I don't know what overcame, you know, what's the strategy?

Hey, 600 guys are here with swords and clubs and lanterns. I know what I'm going to do. I'll cut off one guy's ear. That'll fix it, right? I don't know what he was thinking or whether it was just kind of clumsy and he meant to slice his head in half and just went off to the side. I don't know. It may be that Malchus, that's the name of the servant, kind of dodged his head a little bit and that's how it happened. Who knows? So Peter cut off an ear of the high priest-servant, Malchus.

His name is given there in John 18. Christ told him, put the sword away. You can imagine all the disciples had very shortly before then said, we will die with you, all of them. Peter had started it, but the rest of them all said it too. You can imagine what Jesus said, just put it away. What? We've all made this promise to you. We really, really, really mean it. Nah, just put it away. We don't need this. So Jesus restored Malchus' ear, which I'm sure baffled Malchus too.

In Matthew 26, 53 and 54, it reads like this, 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? Now, the first thing we've got to get out of our heads is an angel is some little angelic baby-like or some critter, right? A legion at the time of the New Testament was about 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers. So 12 legions of angels, 36,000 to 72,000 soldiers. So 36,000 to 72,000 angels is what Jesus is talking about here. That's a lot of angels. That would be enough to greatly overwhelm the 600 men who came to arrest Jesus that night. But defeating the men who came to arrest Jesus was not what God had in mind.

So God could have done it, and it didn't even need Peter. It didn't even require Peter to take out a sword or cut anybody's ears off. Jesus intended to fulfill scripture. He intended to fulfill the eternal covenant with the Father. He intended to die. No Peter. Put the sword away. If I wanted to, I could have taken care of this. No problem. We would overwhelm the 600 people that are here.

But that's not the point. That's not where this is headed, Peter. It's not where it's going. Christ must die. All the disciples left him and fled. You recall that all the disciples except Judas, of course, who had gone off to betray Jesus, said that they would die with him. They had already made that statement. When Jesus told Peter not to fight with the sword or raise a hand against anyone, they were baffled and terrified. What? Not fight? I mean, you're the Messiah, right? No, I don't want you to fight. That's not the point here. That's not the time.

Christ had told the disciples repeatedly, we first saw it in Matthew 12, 40, that he was going to die and be buried and raised again on the third day. He kept telling them that. They didn't understand. They didn't get it. We call that the gospel of substitution, where Christ dies for our sins and is buried and rises again. They didn't get it upon repeated, repeated telling. At this point, they just fled. They're just in a panic. What is going on? Jesus is being taken away and he doesn't even want us to fight. What is happening?

So here from the Garden of Gethsemane, after having come from the upper room, which is in the opposite corner, very near to that, if location is correct, is the residence of Caiaphas. So here's the residence of Caiaphas. So they're basically going back through Jerusalem, close to the place where they had the upper room. And in this trial before Caiaphas, Jesus was brought by his captors to the house of the Sadducee high priest, Caiaphas.

And this is the place where they would hold the nighttime trial. It's the place also where just a couple days before they plotted to carry this all out. You see, this wasn't a last moment decision. This was something that they had planned and decided, and that had been a couple of days ago now. This was all intended to take place, and the trial was also intended to result in Jesus' conviction. Something, anything, that resulted in a death penalty.

Though the evidence isn't conclusive, this is believed to be Caiaphas' house. This, and the evidence is nearly conclusive, is Caiaphas' phone box, which has been found. It has Caiaphas' name on it. Unlike those of poor people, where the box is simple, it is ornately carved. And it has the name Caiaphas written on it, inscribed on it. Inside were bones of a man who was about the right age and is from the time period. So it appears to be almost certain that this is the bone box of the Caiaphas of the New Testament.

Since all this was planned in advance, the Sanhedrin, that is, this is the Jewish high council composed of some Pharisees, excuse me, mostly Pharisees, and some Sadducees, a few of them, in order to have some sense of balance, the Sadducees, who did not believe in a resurrection, and did not believe in the Messiah, the Sadducees were the ones who held the position of High Priest. And in fact, they only held it one at a time. And so when you see High Priests, it's usually referring to those in a sequence. So they had all the Sanhedrin all present and prepared.

It was all a staged trial, of course. A series of false witnesses came forward. Their testimony conflicted. Seems to me like they could have planned that a little better, right? Their testimony conflicted. And of course, that wasn't going to work. So they had to come up with something else.

Later on, a couple of men did come forward. testifying, this man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Which is close to the truth, except that when they talk about the temple of God, they're talking about that building where the sacrifices take place. John 2, and that's very early in the ministry of Jesus. John 2, 19 through 21, is where the Apostle John has this recorded for us. where Jesus says destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up and of course immediately the Jews think not of the temple of his body but this physical temple where we have the sacrifices the Jews then said it took 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days of course verse 21 clarifies for us was speaking of the temple of his body but here When this was the testimony, Jesus did not defend himself.

He didn't clarify what he meant before the council. He just let it be. Now Caiaphas wanted something even more outrageous and so he began directly questioning Jesus rather than trying to summon testimony. He was a Sadducee, which meant that he did not believe in a Messiah at all. But most of the people in the council were Pharisees who did believe in a Messiah. And so he was going to ask a question that even the Pharisees would object to.

When he did, when Caiaphas says, you tell us, I charge you, you tell us whether you are Christ, the Son of God. So Jesus says, okay, you want evidence? He referred him to Psalm 110 and Daniel 7, 13 and 14. He says, I am seated with the Father and will be again and I am coming out of the heavens to earth in the clouds with the angelic forces. You got what you want. You got exactly what you asked for. I am the Son of God. I am the Messiah. with Jesus having given everything to them to allow a full conviction for blasphemy there by the council, it was done.

You have a couple of charts here and it's to help us understand a little bit better. This is a chart similar to what we've had in the past and it shows that the Jews would say that this present evil age, and that's from the time of Adam's sin up until the time of the Messiah's coming, That is the present evil age or the present age. When the Messiah comes again, this is the age to come or the Messiah's age, right? And so this would be a picture of how the scripture lays it out. We would see as Christians that there is the first coming, the church beginning at Acts 2, the church age next, and then the church is raptured prior to the tribulation period. The second coming is when we come back with Him already in new bodies.

Now that's the understanding that we have. Let me show you, and it's also the next slide on your handout, let me show you how the Jews pictured this taking place. They figured that it was the present evil age to be ended with a seven-year tribulation period at the end of which the Messiah would come in the clouds with the angels to begin the Messiah's age, the age to come. That's their perception of it.

So when Jesus comes and he's born in Bethlehem and not amid some big event out of the sky, when Jesus comes and he grows up in Nazareth as a carpenter, that doesn't fit this picture that they have of the Messiah. So when Jesus says, I'm the Messiah, they say, haha, bad for you, because it's not even close to what they pictured as the Messiah. So he's obviously a charlatan. He is obviously a fool and a fake. That's what they saw. And people will ask, well, why didn't the Jews believe in Jesus? This is one of the key reasons why. This is what they were expecting.

The Messiah doesn't get born in Bethlehem. The Messiah doesn't spend his life growing up in Nazareth. The Messiah comes out of the clouds with the angels. It'll be his first time, right? That's what they were expecting, and that's the basis upon which they said, you are not the Messiah, you're making a phony claim, you're going to die. Since that's what they were expecting, they rejected him as the Messiah outright. We know where you were born. At one point they say, you know, isn't this his mother, and this his father, and isn't he a carpenter, and you know his sister and brothers? That's not how the Messiah comes. You're not the Messiah.

They moved to convict him of blasphemy. He was very obviously not fitting this picture that they had in their mind. In Matthew 26, 65-68, the high priest tore his robes. Tearing of robes was a Jewish sign of great distress. So he tore his robes and he said, he has blasphemed. Now blasphemy is two different things.

One is saying something evil against God. That would be one definition. The other definition is to claim a relationship with God that you obviously don't have. It was the second definition that Caiaphas was referring to here. You claim a relationship with God that you obviously don't have.

We talk about our Father and that's fine, but you say my Father. And it's great to talk about God in heaven, but you claim to be there with Him. And you say you're going to be there with Him. No. We're not signing up for that. We don't need any more witnesses. You've heard it right out of His own mouth. And Jesus knew what He was doing. What do you think? The answer?

He deserves death on the second definition of blasphemy. Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists and others slapped him. He said, prophesy to us, you Christ, who is the one who hit you? You see, once the conviction for blasphemy, the death penalty, was given, there was no limit to the abuse. Abuse as much as you want. It's just fine. And so it began. Since the council had voted for death, just as planned, although the Romans would carry it out, there was no legal limit to the abuse by the Jews, there was no legal limit to the abuse by the Romans. Anything's fine.

Now we come to Peter's denials there in the courtyard. John chapter 18 lets us know that John was also with Peter. It was Peter who was recognized from the garden, probably because he had cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. That got people's attention. He went forward and did that. As Peter warmed himself by the fire there in the courtyard, the others there recognized Peter and said, hey, wait a minute. Aren't you? Yeah, you were the one with him. You were there in the garden. You were with Jesus. That guy over there across the courtyard, they've just condemned to death. His Galilean accent would give him away.

That would be like somebody coming up and saying, Hey, I'm from Vermont. Right? Yeah, right. Okay? So Peter says, I swear I'm not him. Right? With each accusation in the courtyard, Peter denied that he knew Christ each time, making an oath at first, and then cursing and swearing, along with his vehement denial. Absolutely not. I do not know him.

Luke 22.61 says that at one point the Lord looked across the courtyard right at Peter, and Peter at him. Also, over here in the picture, the rooster crowed. Peter said, oh my, what have I done? What have I done? At this point, Peter breaks down, goes away from the fire, goes away from the courtyard, bitterly weeping at his denial. So you might ask when you see this whole thing, I mean, from the disciples standpoint, this is beyond tragedy. This is beyond baffling. This is beyond puzzling. They don't understand what is going on.

The guy that we have followed and promised that we would die for, we're all running away. And now Peter, he's the one who's always our spokesman. He has said right out in the open, he does not know him. swearing and cursing on top of it. But you know what?

All the disciples said, we'll die with you. And in fact they will. But just not in the way that they expected. Did they not die with Christ? Yes. It would happen. Hours later, they would die with Christ, and you and me too. And as the years would go by, all but one, the Apostle John, would die for Christ, die for the name. But the death was not because somebody pulled a sword. The death that the disciples died with Christ, the death that we die with Christ, is not because somebody pulls out a sword or anything like that.

It's a death that God carries out only for those who believe. And it's a really good thing. Oh good, I died. Isn't that great? Because God intends to accomplish wonderful things that impact us for eternity in that death. So the promise to die that the disciples made, no good at all. God's promise that we died with him, very good. It just doesn't get any better than that.

We'll take a look at that as we study this more. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this. We thank you for even in the midst of what to the disciples looked like horrific tragedy. We thank you that you were just about to begin the great work, a great work that would save us all, a great work that would accomplish far more than what was understood on that day. And we thank you, Lord, for that, that you did graciously. You fulfilled the law graciously for us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.