Chapter 26

There are certain principles of doctrine which run through the narrative of Matthew chapter 26. This chapter is primarily historical narrative but it does place some emphasis on certain points of Bible doctrine. The first doctrine which is emphasised by this particular passage is eternal security. This is the chapter in which Peter denies Christ three times, but even though he denies the Lord Jesus Christ he does not lose his salvation.

The doctrine of eternal security

1. The logical approach — Romans 8:32. If God did the most for us when we were His enemies, what will He do for us now that we are His children. Christ died for us when we were sinners and, as Romans 5 puts it, “His enemies”; now we are His children, we belong to Him, what can He do? The answer is, much more than the most.

2. The positional truth approach. We are in union with the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore cannot lose our salvation — Romans 8:38,39. This is the principle of being in the top circle and therefore we cannot get out of it.

3. The “God’s hand” approach. The believer is often said to be in the hand of God and God never lets go. This is found in Psalm 37:24; John 10:28.

4. The experiential approach — 2 Timothy 2:13.

5. The family approach — Galatians 3:26; John 1:12. We are born again into the family of God and once you are in the family you are always in the family. Illustration: human family.

6. The inheritance approach — 1 Peter 1:4,5. There are four verbs in that section; every one of them smacks of eternal security.

7. The sovereignty approach — 2 Peter 3:9, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward Christ.

8. The Greek tense approach, the perfect tense of Ephesians 2:8. The perfect tense is something that happens in the past with results that go on forever, and Ephesians 2:8 says: “For by grace have you been saved in the past with the result that you go on being saved forever.” There is also the aorist tense of swzw, the verb to be saved. It is found on numerous occasions in the Bible and in the aorist tense it takes that point of time when you believe, divorces it from time and perpetuates it forever. In other words, the moment in which you are saved it is taken out of time and perpetuated forever.

9. The body approach — 1 Corinthians 12:21. The Church is said to be the body of Christ. The body has feet, eyes, and so on. Christ is the head. We are the members of the body and whether we are arms or legs or neck depends entirely on our spiritual gifts. In 1 Cor. 12:21, Christ the head cannot say to the foot, I don’t need you. Cf Colossians 1:18.

10. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit — 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30. This in itself is conclusive. God the Holy Spirit seals you until the day of your resurrection body.

Verses 1-15, the last Monday.

Verse 1 — the conclusion of the Olivet discourse. “And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings [Matthew chapters 24 & 25], he said unto his disciples.” And what He is going to say in verse 2 we will anticipate. It will concern His death at the Passover. Remember that the Passover will be observed on Tuesday night, which is the Jewish Wednesday. Tuesday ends at sundown for the Jews.

Verse 2 — He prophesies concerning His death. Notice how He prefaces it. “Ye know” is perfect tense used for doctrine in the frontal lobe. They know that Christ is going to die, they have heard it over and over again, and so He is simply refreshing their memories; “that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” The Jewish day goes from sundown to sundown. So on Tuesday at sundown you actually start Wednesday, and Wednesday is the Passover. From 6pm Tuesday to 6pm Wednesday is the Passover. They will observe the Passover after sundown on Tuesday which is really the Jewish Wednesday. They observe the Passover at night. Why? The first Passover was at night, not in the daytime.

The disciples knew when the Passover was because this was a fixed date and had been throughout the centuries. The Passover is described in Exodus 12:1-14; it is mentioned in Leviticus 23:5; it’s significance is given in 1 Corinthians 5:7.

“the Son of man” — the title which has to do with His salvation — “is betrayed to be crucified.”

“Son of man”

“Son of man” indicates some very important points of doctrine. “Man” refers to Adam before he sinned. Christ is the last Adam in that He is the only man in the history of the human race who was born minus the sin nature. He had to be minus the sin nature; He had to be minus personal sin, minus imputed sin, in order to go to the cross. He fulfilled all of this and therefore He was qualified to go to the cross. “Son of man” is the title of His humanity; it is the humanity of Christ that died on the cross, deity cannot die.

So “Son of man” indicates first of all how Christ mechanically was able to save us. Jesus Christ is sovereign as God; sovereignty cannot be subject to death. Yet Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Jesus Christ is eternal life; eternal life simply cannot die. Jesus Christ is immutability; immutability cannot change and become something less than it is already. Jesus Christ is omnipresence and you can’t squeeze omnipresence on the cross. The deity of Christ cannot die on the cross, it is totally impossible. So Christ became humanity. Title for Christ as God: Son of God; title for Christ as humanity: Son of man. It is the humanity of Christ that died on the cross. It is the humanity of Christ that received our sins and was judged for our sins; it was the humanity of Christ that died physically after He died spiritually; it is the humanity of Christ that rose again — resurrection body for the humanity of Christ only. The humanity of Christ ascended and the humanity of Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father; deity doesn’t sit. So without humanity Christ could not provide salvation.

But that is not the whole story. He was not only a true human being, minus the old sin nature, minus personal sins, but He had human volition. Without human volition He couldn’t go to the cross, He had to be willing to go to the cross and die for our sins.

“to be crucified,” aorist passive infinitive. The aorist tense of the verb to crucify means that when He is crucified those three hours, when all of the sins of the world were born, are taken out of time and deposited in heaven so that anyone could be saved. The passive voice indicates that Christ received crucifixion. He receives therefore our sins while He was crucified. The infinitive indicates that this is God’s purpose.

At the time that our sins are condemned God does something else: He condemns religion. At the cross God condemns our sins, but just before the cross and as a part of the cross God condemns religion. The cross is the greatest condemnation of religion; the people who put Christ on the cross were religious, legalistic, self-righteous, very moral. So God exposes religion; God condemns religion at the cross.

Verses 3-5, the plot to kill Jesus Christ. Jesus has condemned religion in the temple discourse, and when He was through condemning religion He turned around and walked out on religion. Religion is Satanic in nature.

Verse 3 — “Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes, and the elders of the people.” This would be the Sanhedrin. The chief priests were mostly Sadducees who were the aristocrats. Most of them were rationalists, they had a tendency toward Greek culture and most of them looked down their nose at the Jews, they had no use for their fellow Jews; and most of them despised the Roman empire but they didn’t know how to get around it. The scribes, on the other hand, were mostly Pharisees and they were theologians, conservative in their theology, and they accepted everything in the Old Testament except Christ. They just would not accept Jesus while He was on earth. The third category, the elders of the people, were mostly Herodians. They were not interested in anything theological, they were only interested in restoring the kingdom of Herod. They recognised that the best economic conditions that ever existed in Palestine in the 100 years before had occurred during the reign of Herod the Great and they wanted the house of Herod to come back. So this is the Sanhedrin, made up of chief priests, scribes and Pharisees.

“unto the palace” — the court around the palace buildings. They wouldn’t dare go into the palace because their plot could be overheard. Inside of any building there were ways to hear but they were in a porch on the outside of the palace and they could look in three directions and post someone on the fourth. And there they could plot without being overheard. It was a common practice in the ancient world to do plotting outside; “of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.” Caiaphas is the high priest during the reign of Tiberias Caesar. He held the office from 18-36 AD. He was finally deposed in 36 AD by Vitellius the Roman proconsul who took the place of Pontius Pilate. Until then he had a great time. He made millions of dollars out of religion and out of the various gangs that worked in the Negev, they all split with the high priest their take.

Verse 4 — the reason for their assembly. “And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.” The word “consulted” means that they plotted; “by subtilty” means by fraud and deceit. Their desire was to kill Him and this is in the subjunctive mood because they weren’t sure they could do it. Unless they could get someone to betray Him they couldn’t do it. Betrayal means two things: pointing out Jesus and standing in court and witnessing against Him. Remember, Judas didn’t get as far as court. This included the religious leaders of the land. The attitude of religion toward grace is, “Kill it.”

Verse 5 — “But they said, Not on the feast day.” Don’t let us kill Him on the Passover, let’s kill Him before the Passover; “lest there be an uprising among the people.” Like most religious rulers they were afraid of the people.

Verses 6-13, in Bethany. In Bethany Jesus is spending the Monday night and they are having a banquet. Jesus, because He knew He was going to die in a couple of days and because He has already prophesied His death, isn’t sitting around moping about it. Jesus carries on as usual. Why? Because He has Bible doctrine in His frontal lobe. And anyone with Bible doctrine in His frontal lobe can carry on no matter what is happening.

Verse 6 — “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.”

Verse 7 — “There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat [at the banquet].” John tells us that Lazarus was there and the two sisters, Mary and Martha. Matthew doesn’t mention the woman’s name but John does. We know from John 11:19 that the woman is Mary, the sister of Lazarus, also known as Mary of Bethany. She didn’t have an alabaster box at all, she had a phial, a small elongated container, filled with very precious ointment. We know from John 12:3 that it was spikenard which was one of the most valuable ointments of the ancient world, made from the East Indian nard plant and very expensive. John tells us how much it cost: 300 denarius, about ten months’ wages .

Matthew was sitting at the table and he notices everything that goes on above the table but nothing that goes on below the table. Reason: he was sitting at the other end of the table. Who would notice what was going on under the table? John, because John was seated beside the Lord. So John was the one who said she anointed His feet and His head. Matthew only sees her anoint His head.

Verse 8 — “But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation.” Matthew was the last one to see this and probably never would have noticed it because he was eating his food and minding his business and was more interested in the food than in the action. Apparently he only looked up to see the tail end of this. John saw Judas provoke the disciples. We learn from John chapter 12 that it was Judas who started the criticism of Mary. “They had indignation” means they became very angry.

“To what purpose is this waste?” The Greek doesn’t say “waste” at all, it says “This is a dead loss.”

The “dead loss”

1. The criticism from the disciples was started by Judas Iscariot — John 12:4.

2. The unjust criticism of Judas was picked up by the other disciples, minus John and Matthew, which means they were easily led by anyone who opened his mouth. They were led by criticism rather than by doctrine.

3. Beware of parroting the criticism of others, it means triple compound discipline.

4. It is very important to avoid judging others because this means discipline for you — Matthew 7:1,2; Romans 14:4,10.

5. The disciples were critical because they were minus Bible doctrine.

6. Jesus has just communicated the fact of His death and Mary understood it.

7. Lack of doctrine in the frontal lobe means failure to understand doctrine when it is taught, which means wrong action; you can’t apply what you do not know.

Verse 9 — “This ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” This sounds good but it is a facade as far as Judas is concerned, and the rest of the disciples are just plain old stupid parrots.

Verse 10 — “When Jesus understood it [heard their criticism and understood the intent], he said unto them, Why trouble [bother] ye the woman?” The word “trouble” is actually a noun and it means to cause trouble; “for she hath wrought a good work upon me.” And this means beautiful in the sense of directed by the Spirit.

Verse 11 — “For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.” In spite of socialism and every Satanic device — war on poverty, etc. — there will always be poor and there will always be rich people. There is only one solution to the inequalities of man and that solution is regeneration. Jesus Christ is to die, to rise again, to ascend, and during the Church Age He is not here, during the Tribulation He is not here. And during those two periods when He is not here there will never be equality. When He comes back He will provide equality for people but until then there is no equality, there cannot be equality. The Church Age and the Tribulation will be characterised by inequality and this focuses attention on the cross and on regeneration as the solution to man’s problems.

Verse 12 — “For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.” She did the right thing.

Verse 13 — “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” In other words, when the gospel is proclaimed (information about Christ) this should be told. Why? Because this woman had doctrine. Why did she buy that ointment? She spent all of her money for it because she had doctrine. Jesus said He was going to die in two days, she knew He was going to die in two days, and knowing this she went and purchased the ointment for His burial. She was operating on Bible doctrine and it was the disciples who were out of line. She was ready for the most cataclysmic event in history which would take place in the next couple of days and through it all she was ready for it, she was calm about it, she understood what was going on, she was at the cross, she was one of the women that the Lord met after the resurrection, and she is a memorial for the importance of Bible doctrine in the frontal lobe.

Verse 14 — “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests.”

Verse 15 — “And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted [bargained] with him for thirty pieces of silver.”

Verse 16 — “And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.”

Judas Iscariot

Judas Iscariot was a man of tremendous talent and ability, and actually was the most promising of all the twelve disciples, except for several things: he did not accept Christ as saviour and his character was of such an unstable type that he didn’t make it at all.

The privileges of Judas Iscariot.

From John 6:71 we learn that he was from the tribe of Judah, the ruling tribe, and he was the only man of the twelve disciples who had any education or training. In Luke 6:16 he was called by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a disciple; in Matthew 10:4 he was numbered with the twelve disciples, but he was different from the other eleven for several reasons. He was the only one of the twelve who held an official job, he was the treasurer for the disciples — John 12:6. He was not only with the Lord during His entire earthly ministry, heard His messages, saw His miracles and the signs of Messiahship, but He was present with the Lord at the last supper — John 13:26.

The perfidy of Judas Iscariot.

He was covetous according to John 12:4-6. He was a thief — John 12:6. He was not demon-possessed, he was Satan possessed — Luke 22:3. In his desire to have money and to make money he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ — Mark 14:10. He betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ — Matthew 26:14-16.

All of this has as its background the fact that Judas Iscariot was an unbeliever, he never trusted in Christ as saviour, never was born again.

The punishment of Judas Iscariot.

Judas repented — Matthew 27:3. However, the Greek word for repentance is not the usual one, a change of mental attitude toward Christ, but the emotional one. So Judas had an emotional repentance. In other words, he felt sorry for his sins. He made restitution for his sins — Matthew 27:4. He committed suicide — Matthew 27:5; Acts 1:18. There is a special curse on him — Acts 1:20.

Verse 14 — notice that Judas was smart and he knew where to go to betray Christ. He went to the religious crowd; he went to religion. It was religion that hated Christ and Judas was smart enough to notice that it was the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, the ones who constantly rejected Christ and constantly maligned the Son of God.

Verse 15 — “What will ye.” The Greek says, What do you desire to give me? “And they bargained.” They haggled over it. The chief priests apparently wanted to get by with shedding as little money as possible. Finally the price was set at thirty pieces of silver, the price of the freedom of a slave.

Verse 16 — “And from that time he sought,” imperfect linear aktionsart, he kept on looking for the opportunity to betray Him. Right up until the time of the Passover there was no opportunity, and his opportunity comes during the last Passover, before the last Passover becomes the Eucharist or the Lord’s table.

Verses 17-30, the last Passover.

Verse 17 — “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread.” This is the Passover. This is either Tuesday 5 April or Tuesday 13 April, 30 AD. After the Passover is unleavened bread for the week; “the disciples came unto Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?”

Verse 18 — Jesus gives them some instructions. Matthew doesn’t pay much attention to the details but we do get some interesting details from the other gospels. “And he said, Go into the city.” This means to go into Jerusalem; “to such a man,” a Greek idiom for Mr X, an unknown man; “and say unto him.” Now the point is: which man? Jerusalem has two million people. We know from Mark 14:13 and Luke 22:10 that it was a man carrying a pitcher of water on his head. You never saw that as a rule. Women carried water on their heads and if men carried water at all they would put it on an animal. A man never carried water in the ancient world, so this was a strange and rare sight and something anyone would notice. It just so happened that this man who carried the water was a believer who had responded to the Lord’s message.

“The master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.” This is all that they have to say to him and then he knows what to do.

Verse 19 — “And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed [commanded]; and they made ready the Passover.” We have the disciples’ complete obedience. Notice that it was a very strange command, it is a rather odd thing to say, You go into town and look for a man carrying water on his head, and say thus and so to him. A lot of people would not have done it because they couldn’t understand it, the whole thing sounded crazy. But obedience demands faith, operation faith-rest, and at this point they had a little faith-rest.

Verse 20 — we have the fact that the Passover was held on a Jewish Wednesday. “Now when the even,” this is sundown, “was come, he sat down with the twelve.” In other words, as soon as the sun goes down it is Wednesday the Passover day, and they are observing it. When it says “He sat down” this means to sit down at a formal banquet, Roman style. In other words, to recline at the table.

Verses 21-25, the announcement of the Lord’s betrayal.

Verse 21 — “And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.”

Verse 22 — “And they were exceeding sorrowful.” The word for being sorrowful here is an emotional word. They got all emotional about it. Emotion will not sustain people in time of crisis. We all have emotion and emotion is an appreciator of things in this life. The disciples are depending on how they feel to sustain them, rather than on the Word of God. All of the way through this chapter we are going to see the contrast between emotion and doctrine. The two are going to be in conflict. Already that night the disciples are charging themselves with emotion and emotion will not carry them. Before the evening is over they get very emotional but all of the emotion in the world is not going to get the job done. At the same time we are going to see in this chapter the Lord preparing Himself for the cross, and He does it through doctrine.

The twelve disciples were eating the Passover and the eating of the Passover is a ritual. One of them is unsaved, Judas Iscariot, and he is going through the ritual although he is unsaved. He is actually eating the Passover lamb. Actually they ate several things. They first of all ate part of the lamb and they had a sauce which they ate with this lamb. The sauce was put into big dishes and what they would do was simply pull a piece off of the lamb and dip it in the sauce and then eat it. Jesus is going to mention that dipping bowl in just a moment. They also ate unleavened bread. The lamb speaks of Jesus Christ, the bread speaks of Jesus Christ. The eating of these things is a picture of faith in Christ. And here is Judas Iscariot eating the lamb and eating the bread. Ritual without reality is meaningless and anyone who goes through ritual portraying Christ and hasn’t believed in Christ is doing something which is absolutely meaningless. Then with the eleven disciples who are saved they are eating the Passover lamb but not understanding because of doctrine. They are minus the proper doctrine even though they have been trained time and time again.

“and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord is it I?”

Verse 23 — “And he answered and said.” Apparently they all asked at the same time, they didn’t go around and each one ask; “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish [bowl], the same shall betray me.” This again is the sauce bowl. Apparently Judas, before Jesus had even finished, had a chunk of the lamb in his hand and he was already moving towards the bowl and the Lord put a piece of the lamb in at the same time, apparently just a second behind Judas. We do not know from this passage whether Judas ate the lamb but we do know that he got up immediately and went out, and that he did not stay for the Lord’s table, he was not present at the Eucharist.

Verse 24 — “The Son of man goeth as it is written” — the word “goeth” means He is going to the cross. It is present linear aktionsart to indicate that it is a dramatic moment. The height of the Father’s plan fulfilled historically is the cross and Jesus Christ is indicating that the Son of man — a title for His humanity — will go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. Notice: “as it is written.” The Old Testament clearly declares the cross.

“but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed.” In other words, the plan of God moves on in spite of the perfidy of Judas Iscariot. Judas didn’t enter the plan of God, he was Satan-possessed. The plan of God goes on in spite of demon-possessed or Satan-possessed individuals, in spite of the opposition of religion, in spite of anything.

“it had been good for that man if he had not been born.” In other words, the person who betrays the Lord demonstrates maximum negative volition, he never gets around to believing in Christ and accepting Him as his saviour even though he feels sorry for his sins and makes restitution for his sins, and he will go to the lake of fire.

Verse 25 — “Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I?” The disciples have all asked, “Is it I?” but they said, “Lord, is it I?”; Judas says, “Master.” He hasn’t accepted Christ as saviour. And he does it belatedly, he is trying to cover. Judas is caught with his hand in the sauce bowl at the time the Lord makes His remark. He has to cover some way and so he says, “Master is it I?” He knew that he was guilty but he is trying to cover his tracks.

“and he said unto him, Thou hast said.” Thou hast said is an idiom for Yes.

Matthew leaves Judas here; the other passages tell us how he went out immediately.

Verse 26 — the institution of the Lord’s table. Between verses 25 and 26 Judas departs from the scene to go out and betray the Lord. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread.” The bread is the changeover now from the Passover of the past to the Lord’s table. The cross is going to occur the next day. Everything before the cross we will call Old Testament; everything after the cross we will call New Testament. We have anticipation in the Old Testament; we have retrospection in the New Testament. In the Old Testament they used the lamb to depict Christ; now they will use the bread. This is the feast of the unleavened bread. The lamb they ate, there will be the eating of the bread depicting faith; the blood was sprinkled and thereafter the cup was used. And the cup will be used again, we learn that from Matthew 20:22.

“and blessed it.” The blessing is a very strange thing. We have a blessing in the middle of a meal but it isn’t really strange when you realise that this starts a new meal. Jesus always blessed the food at the beginning of the meal but now he blesses the meal right in the middle because it is a new meal. This is the way of announcing a new dispensation; “and broke it, and gave it to his disciples.” The breaking of the bread is a picture of Jesus Christ bearing our sins; “and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” His command: aorist active imperative. The eating is the analogy to faith.

Verse 27 — we now have the cup. Note: Psalm 116:13. This is actually Hezekiah’s prayer after his deliverance from the sin unto death. “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” Hezekiah is looking forward to observing the Passover. He recognises the grace of the Lord as never before because he has been under the sin unto death and has been delivered from it, so this is his testimony. The cup of salvation refers to the Passover cup. In the Passover they not only had the lamb which was slain — and they would eat it — but they also had the blood. The blood of the lamb in the original Passover was sprinkled on the sides and on the top of the doors. Then for a long time the Jews didn’t have doors, and so in the second Passover and every Passover thereafter they used the cup, and they put wine into the cup and they drank from the cup. The cup of salvation which Hezekiah mentions in Psalm 116:13 is simply a reference to his anxiety, his desire, to observe the Passover.

Cf Matthew 20:22 — the cup is filled with the sins of the world and the sins of the world are poured out upon Christ. A He hangs upon the cross Christ drinks from the cup. The drinking of the cup is Christ bearing our sins. The cup is filled with every sin that has ever been committed.

When the believer holds the cup during the communion, the wine, the juice, whatever is in that cup represents the sins of the world. The drinking of that cup means that you remember that Christ took all of your sins upon Himself and He was judged. Whenever Jesus Christ mentioned the cup He was referring to His death, bearing our sins and taking our place.

Verse 27 — “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it.” The cup again goes back to the blood and the judgement of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, when it says “he gave thanks,” we have a Greek word here, e)uxaristw, from which we get Eucharist as the title for the Lord’s table. It must be remembered that this is ritual and all ritual must be meaningful, it depicts the work of Christ on the cross.

Verse 28 — “For this is my blood.” Actually they had boiled wine in the cup, and He holds up the wine, The word “this is” is present active indicative of the verb e)imi, which is usually a status quo verb. But the present tense indicates the present tense of the ritual and every time whenever the Eucharist is observed and when the cup is held the cup always represents the blood of Christ, it always represents His death. So “this is” does not mean it is actually it, it just represents, and the verb is in the present tense to indicate that this ritual must be perpetuated, and the reason we have “this is,” present active indicative of e)imi, is to go with the aorist active imperatives: Jesus said, “eat”; Jesus said, “drink” aorist active imperative, in that point of time. The present tense following indicates that this is to be perpetuated.

“of the new testament” is literally, new covenant. The Greek word is diaqhkh, which does not mean testament. The word actually means two people placing an agreement in a repository. Two people make an agreement, they draw up the contract, and then they put it in a safe place. This was the original meaning of the word. But then eventually diaqhkh was used for a will. One person makes a will and puts it in a safe place, and actually that is the meaning here. The new testament is the will of Jesus Christ and it is deposited, as it were, in heaven. And the will of Jesus Christ says in effect that anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.

“which is shed for many [on behalf of the many] for [because of] the remission of sins.”

Verse 29 — a prophecy of the kingdom. “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine.” Notice He does not call it wine because it is not fermented, it is only boiled; “until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” And so He is saying that He would never again partake of a meal with them or drink of the cup until the Millennial reign. Of course, the principle is that in the Millennial reign they would have fellowship again around the table.

Verse 30 — the conclusion. “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.” Tradition tells us that the music of the Jews was very beautiful. The melody was very beautiful and it carried them away. The lyrics were Psalm 118 and they didn’t pay any attention to the lyrics, they were carried away by the tune. The lyrics appeal to the mind; the melody appeals to the emotion. The disciples were carried away by the tune, they sang a hymn and they all went out and fell flat on their faces. Principle: Music doesn’t carry you one yard in the Christian life. The most beautiful music in the world is not going to sustain us through any pressure of life. It is doctrine that sustains you.

The steps in Peter’s fall

The first step is found in verses 31-35.

Verse 31 — “Then saith Jesus unto them.” Jesus could see by the way they were singing that they were all reaching a pitch emotionally. He could tell by the way they were singing that they were headed for trouble so He decided to bring them down to earth with a point of doctrine. He is going to give them a prophecy now from Zechariah chapter 13, “All ye because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd,” Zech. 13:7, prophecy of His death, Christ is the Shepherd, “and the sheep of the flock [the disciples] shall be scattered abroad.” They will just run in all directions.

Verse 32 — He also prophecies of His resurrection. “But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.” When He says, I will go before you, it means t walk ahead of those dragging their feet. In other words, He recognises that even when He is risen the disciples will still be dragging their feet. The disciples will be dragging their feet and Jesus will walk ahead in a resurrection body. All of this is a prophecy of His death and His resurrection.

Verse 33 — Peter is the first to respond. “Peter answered and said unto him, Though all shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” This is the first step in Peter’s fall.

1. He ignores the Word of God. He ignores what Jesus has said in Zechariah 13:7. Jesus said, You are going to be scattered; Peter said, I am not. He is under the influence of this melody (and he didn’t pay any attention to the words because the words tell how Christ is going to die on the cross) and he said, I will not run. He said it in emotion; he said it in sincerity, but sincerity and emotion will not carry the believer in time of pressure.

2. His second problem is a mental attitude problem. If you reject doctrine you lose the perspective and you have a tendency to think well of yourself. Peter now stands up in his pride [disorientation] and says, I will stand fast. He thinks the rest are a bunch of cowards, “Though all shall be offended.”

Verse 34 — the Lord says that the prophecy is in regard to Peter and that Peter will deny Him three times. “Jesus said unto him [Peter], Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow.” The chicken is an unclean animal, forbidden by the Mosaic law. Who would have a chicken in Jerusalem? The Romans had chickens, they loved chicken. The fact that there is a cock in Jerusalem just means that the Romans are there running the show. Jesus makes it very clear that the Romans are running the show and not Peter; “thou shalt deny me thrice.” When Peter has denied the Lord three times the rooster will crow and it will be a perfect illustration of Peter: lots of crow but no courage.

Verse 35 — “Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee.” You have to remember that Peter is sincere. Sincerity is a covering for ignorance of doctrine. So Peter is emotional (the hymn), he is sincere, he is brave. Peter doesn’t lack for courage. He is sincere and he wants to defend the Lord and he intends to die with the Lord but the trouble with Peter is he is unstable. No matter how good his intentions he doesn’t have the character or the human strength to carry it out. In fact he is getting in the way of God’s plan. What Peter needs is a good dose of doctrine in the frontal lobe so he would be oriented to the situation but instead he goes off half cocked. He is going to find out that no matter how good are the intentions you cannot operate on human strength. It takes doctrine to carry you through the pressure.

“Likewise also said all the disciples.” All the disciples get on the bandwagon. Now they are all telling the Lord how they will stand by. Peter started it and they pick it up, and there isn’t enough doctrine in the eleven of them to keep any one of them going for five minutes. So they are all going to fall apart.

Verse 36 — “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.” The Lord Jesus Christ now recognises the need for prayer. Jesus is actually getting into an isolated place where He can have prayer. Notice that the Pharisees prayed in the temple, they prayed on the street corners, they prayed out in the open seven times a day. The point is very simple: the Pharisees were religious, self-righteous, they were not saved, they did not have eternal life, and to them it was all show. The most effective prayer is conducted in privacy.

(Privacy is the central principle of Christianity. Every person who is a believer must have total privacy and this means that no other believer has the right to mind your business. It is only through privacy that the believer grows because through privacy he lives his life as unto the Lord and what people think doesn’t mean a thing).

“while I go and pray yonder” — “I go” is aorist active participle, followed by a future active indicative, “pray.” This is not future from the standpoint of His going. He is going to Gethsemane and He is going to an isolated spot where He can have privacy because the most effective prayer is covered in privacy. The reason He sought privacy was so He could pray, and He didn’t pray in front of anyone. This is prayer for His own personal needs; Jesus is going to pray for Himself. He doesn’t want to go to the cross. The reason He doesn’t want to go to the cross in His humanity is because He is sinless personally, He has no old sin nature, and there is nothing worse to Him than having sin poured out upon Him which doesn’t belong to Him.

verse 37 — “And He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and very heavy.” The word “began” is an aorist middle indicative and it means when He got out alone — aorist tense, the point when he finally was alone; middle voice [reflexive]: He himself was responsible for this attitude; the indicative mood is the reality of the fact that He began to be sorrowful. To be sorrowful is a present passive infinitive that goes with the verb — he began to be sorrowful. The present tense means that this was a perpetuated thing, it had a beginning with the contemplation of the cross. The passive voice means that He received this as a result of contemplating what was going to happen. The infinitive indicates a result of contemplating the cross.

So He began to be sorrowful and this sorrow is in the area of His humanity. The attitude of Jesus Christ toward the cross is a very important thing. It was not a sinful thing but it was something that was so ghastly that He would like to by-pass it. The word “very heavy” is the Greek verb for being depressed or to be distressed under heavy pressure. We assume that here it refers to distress, although it could have been depressed for physiological reasons, not for sinful reasons. The idea of coming into contact with the sin of the world put Him under maximum pressure. We know that this was what He was thinking about for this reason. In the time before the cross there were six trials, and during those trials people stepped up and struck Him, they spat on Him, they slapped Him, they lied about Him, later they scourged Him. In addition to that, when He hung on the cross it was excruciating torture because the weight of His own body separated the bones from their sockets — He was in extreme pain, yet during all of that time “as a lamb before the shearers is dumb so He opened not His mouth", He didn’t cry out once. It was not until twelve noon and until three in the afternoon that He continually screamed and the screams were caused by the sins of the world being poured out on Him. So His sorrow was contemplating sin-bearing.

Now Jesus Christ prayed alone in His humanity (His deity didn’t pray) and the point is that you as a believer can handle your problems before God by taking every problem and dumping them in the Lord’s hands. Jesus Christ faced the greatest pressure any member of the human race has ever faced. He faced it just before His capture and He won the issue before He was taken into custody. And He did it alone.

Why and how did He do it alone? Jesus Christ enucleated the pattern of His life at the great temptation when He said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every word proceeding out of the mouth of God is Bible doctrine. While physical food is necessary for life it is a detail of life, it is doctrine that counts. It was doctrine that sustained Jesus on the cross during those last three hours. The thing that kept Him going was doctrine. The thing that caused Him to solve His problem through prayer to the Father was doctrine. Note: All of the prayer in the world isn’t worth a dime unless you know some doctrine.

Jesus Christ is “sorrowful and very heavy,” which means He doesn’t want to go to the cross in His humanity, He wants to operate on negative signals here. Now He hasn’t committed any sin, He hasn’t turned down the plan of God, this is merely a pre-attitude which is a natural one. The reason this is recorded is to remind us of what it cost Jesus Christ to go to the cross. If He had had His way in His humanity He would have said, Negative. The whole thing is recorded to show us that the key to going to the cross was the human volition of Jesus Christ, not His deity. Were it not for the fact that there is freewill on the earth there would be no salvation. The word “heavy” means to be in maximum distress conditions.

Verse 38 — “Then saith he unto them [to Peter, James and John], My soul.” His human spirit is not involved. The fact that He does not desire to go is in His human soul, His human spirit having relationship with God will actually do the will of God and desires the will of God; “is exceeding sorrowful” is a compound adjective which means deeply grieved — periluph. Luph simply means sorrow, peri means around, and He is saying in effect that inside of Him is sorrow or sorrow is His status. Peri means around and He is in the centre, sorrow is in the centre; “even unto death.” This is literally, until death. Until He actually dies physically He is going to be exceedingly sorrowful and this sorrow will only increase until it reaches its peak when He bears our sins. When our sins are poured out upon Christ His sorrow will reach its peak.

“tarry [remain] ye here, and watch with me.” The word “watch” means be vigilant, it is a present active imperative. The imperative means this is a command or an order; active voice: this is something they have to do; present tense is linear aktionsart: keep doing it, in other words. Notice He didn’t say pray, but He said, be vigilant, a military term which means to be alert on guard duty, and it means more than prayer it encompasses the whole idea of being oriented to the plan of God. Watchfulness is orientation to the plan of God and if ever they needed orientation to the plan of God it was then. Their lack of understanding of doctrine is going to ruin them.

Verse 39 — “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed [kept on praying], saying, O my Father, if.” “If” is a first class condition. He says, “if it be possible,” and the point of the first class condition: it is possible. And why is it possible not to go to the cross? Because it is the humanity of Christ that will die, it is the humanity of Christ that will be judged for all of the sins of the world. Sin receives various types of judgement in time but judgement for sin for eternity is what is involved here, and all sin has been judged at the cross. In His humanity Jesus makes it clear that it is possible for Him to by-pass because He has free will. The first class condition indicates that He has free will and can avoid the cross. The word “possible” is a noun indicating the possibility of actually avoiding the cross.

“let this cup pass from me.” This cup is taken from Matthew 20:22. The cup is used in the sense that in the cup are the sins of the world and on the cross Jesus will, as it were, drink these sins, and as these sins become His then God the Father will institute judgement. So the cup is used to indicate the cross. The word “from” is the preposition a)po, and this is the preposition of ultimate source. In other words, He wants to by-pass the whole thing completely.

The expression of the true attitude: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou.” “Not as I will” refers to the human volition of Christ; “as thou” refers to the sovereignty of God the Father, the author of the plan of salvation.

Verse 40 — “And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep.” But He only speaks to Peter. To speak to Peter He had to wake him up! “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” Apparently we do not have all of the prayer because this one hour is literal and one hour has elapsed.

Verse 41 — He commands Peter specifically. “Watch” — be alert — “and pray.” He clarifies watching here as praying. Why does He want Peter to pray? For Jesus? No. “That you enter not into temptation.” The point is that Jesus was praying not to enter into temptation, the temptation of by-passing the cross, and he is saying to Peter that Peter was going to have his own pressures this night and he also needs to pray. Principle: Prayer has some relationship to resistance of temptation.

“the spirit indeed is willing.” This means that the human spirit always does the will of God; the human soul goes on negative volition. The [human] spirit is willing to do the right thing; “but the flesh is weak” .

There are several things that hinder the human spirit from doing the will of God. One is relationship to the Holy Spirit because the human spirit is no good without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When a believer is out of fellowship he can’t go on positive volition except in a non-meritorious way — rebound, confession of sin. The other factor in keeping the human spirit going in the right direction is doctrine, and if you are ignorant of Bible doctrine then the willingness of the human spirit is limited by the ignorance of doctrine.

The word “willing” is an adjective, it means volition-wise it is willing to do the will of God. The reason that Peter is not going to do the will of God is that he is ignorant of doctrine and he does not follow the instructions given him at this time (to pray), he prefers to sleep. The “flesh” refers to the old sin nature, the old sin nature is weak.

Verse 42 — “he went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if (1st class condition) this cup [the cross] may not pass away from me [and He knows that it cannot], except I drink it.” The cup contains the sins of the world, on the cross He is going to drink it. When He drinks it it becomes His own. When the cup is empty, as it will be by three o’clock in the afternoon, all of the sins that have been committed in the human race, past, present and future, will have been judged on the cross. All sin was judged at the cross and therefore sin is never an issue in salvation.

“thy will be done” — literally, thy will come to pass. The verb is ginomai, and it never means to be done. It is in the aorist tense: point of time, the cross; passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, and in this case the subject is the Father’s will, and the Father’s will receives accomplishment by Christ bearing our sins. Verse 42 is the verse of victory, and the victory in principle is always the same, it is doing the will of God.

Verse 43 — we have defeat. Defeat is based upon stupidity, ignorance of doctrine. “And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.” When the weight stays on the eyelids it means lack of interest, apathy. No matter how much sleep you haven’t had, when your brain starts functioning and becomes stimulated your eyes are wide open. If Peter had doctrine in his frontal lobe he wouldn’t be sleepy.

Verse 44 — “And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.” In other words, He went back and faced the issue again and came back on positive volition, so this is a repetition of the victory.

Verse 45 — we go back to the defeat. “Then cometh he to the disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, take your rest: behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” Who are the sinners? They are religious people, they are people who prayed seven times a day, they went to church three times a day, they are self-righteous.

Sleeping didn’t prepare the disciples for anything. So the principle: It is what you think that counts, it is doctrine in the frontal lobe that counts, it is doctrine that makes you a relaxed person, it is doctrine that takes the stuffy self-righteousness out of you, it is doctrine that makes you a person that minds his own business and yet has a lot of friends, it is doctrine that gives you inner happiness.

So far in this chapter we have seen two principles. First of all we have seen the principle of going without doctrine and what it means in the area of self-induced misery. Secondly we have seen the principle of living by doctrine and the result of it which is tremendous inner happiness. There are two antithetical messages given in this chapter. The chapter talks about Peter as the man who failed without doctrine; a man who produced his own misery because he ignored doctrine. Then we see running through this passage the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and how through doctrine He fulfilled the plan of God in going to the cross and dying for the sins of the world. We also see maximum pressure coming to the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t lose His poise, he doesn’t become upset, He is not guilty of any sin, mental attitude or other wise. He knows exactly what He is doing, He understands the plan of God, He orients to the plan of God, He utilises the grace of God, and He accomplishes the objective. Then we see, on the other hand, Peter, and we see him going from bad to worse and when he ends up this chapter he is totally miserable.

Verses 46-50, the act of betrayal. In this we see an unbeliever who is now starting his miserable road which will terminate in his own self-destruction.

Verse 46 — “Rise, let us be going: behold he is at hand that doth betray me.” Life is filled with periods of inactivity and then suddenly a lot of action, then inactivity and then a lot of action. The periods of inactivity are very important because they determine the nature of the action. During those periods when there is no particular problem or difficulty or tragedy on the horizon, we have the opportunity to prepare ourselves, to settle down firmly in our minds with Bible doctrine and learn something of the inner happiness that can come from time of peace or success, or at least freedom from suffering. And then the action, then the pressure, and then the determining factors: did we during the periods of preparation get the doctrine, are we now oriented to the plan of God and to the grace of God?

So when the Lord Jesus says “Rise” it is actually a command to get up and to stay up. “Rise” is in the present tense and that wouldn’t mean much in itself except that with the middle voice it connotes linear aktionsart, and it means not only get on your feet but to stand up like a man in view of what is coming — which, of course, they do not. The eleven believing disciples all run away and they get scattered in different directions. They fall apart and the reason they do is because while they have had three years of Bible teaching it didn’t take. In fact it will not take until after the resurrection.

“let us be going” is a present active subjunctive, which means whether you really get going or not depends on how you use Bible doctrine. We are facing the principle again: Bible doctrine in your life is either the major factor or it is a detail. If it is a detail you are never ready for the crisis; if Bible doctrine is your life then you are ready for anything and you have inner happiness no matter what the circumstances. The whole issue at this point with the eleven disciples is: in your relationship with the Lord you get to know people by what they think. The Bible is the mind of Christ, Bible doctrine is the way that we become intimate with the Lord. If Bible doctrine is your life and everything else is a detail then you have it made. But if doctrine is a detail and the things which are the so-called details of life become of major importance then you are in trouble. All eleven of the disciples fail in this chapter. Peter’s failure is pulled out and amplified but the other ten disciples failed as well. There is only one disciple who did not fail after he was saved and that is the one who replaced Judas — Saul of Tarsus. He didn’t run, he managed to stand fast because from the very beginning Bible doctrine was of major impact for him. Everything else in life was a detail — everything. And since everything else was a detail he had that perfect stability whereby he could face 99 per cent of the pressures of life and come up in wonderful condition. But these eleven disciples at this time were all failures because the briefings of the Lord, His teachings, were all details to them rather than of major impact.

Verse 47 — “And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude” — men from the temple guard, some Roman soldiers, but apparently they didn’t think this was enough so they armed a mob. They are going out to take one man with a great multitude of people! This should tell us some things about Jesus. First of all He is physically very strong and secondly they are afraid of Him. And notice (and this is always the way) that people try to find security in large numbers. However, there is no security in large numbers. Some of the largest armies in history have illustrated this point when they have been severely defeated by small armies. It is typical of human viewpoint to feel that there is safety in numbers.

Notice their source: “from [a)po, the preposition of ultimate source] the chief priests and elders of the people.” There were soldiers with weapons and that would be expected, but here is also a mob with weapons and the ultimate source of this is religion. There is never anything right about a mob of any kind for any purpose. Nothing is ever settled by a mob. No mob can think. A mob is always without thought even though there might be thought behind it, a plan behind it, and nothing is ever resolved by allowing people to form a violent mob. A mob is contrary to everything we hold dear: the right of the individual, the right of property, the right of personal dignity, and so on. A mob destroys all this and it should be noticed that the very people who ought to be for law and order condone the mob.

Verse 48 — “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.” Why did Judas say “Hold him fast?” Because he knew the power of the Lord and Judas was afraid of reprisal. Petty people always reduce everyone to their own thought pattern. Judas is a petty person. He assumes that Jesus would think like he would and Judas actually had the tremendous egomania to think that the Lord would lower Himself to Judas’ standard and seek reprisal against him. Judas is an unbeliever and he doesn’t understand the essence box and he doesn’t understand the humanity of Christ though he has fantastic demonstration of the Lord’s perfect grace. And what is true of Judas is true of so many believers, they assume when they are petty and small, that everyone thinks as they do. Nothing could be further from the truth. One thing about Bible doctrine in the frontal lobe, it eliminates this pettiness of mind which causes so much misery to the individual who is that way. Judas is a miserable person, he has thirty pieces of silver now, he has money — and does it make him happy? No.

Verse 49 — “And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.” A kiss has a threefold connotation: recognition, relationship, reward. In all three of these — and note the hypocrisy of Judas — he does not recognise Jesus as God, he does not recognise Him as the only saviour, he says, Hail master [Master is an academic title; it precludes recognising Jesus Christ as the unique person of the universe]. Because Judas is an unbeliever he has no relationship and he has no reward; Judas is building up his own rewards: self-induced misery leading to suicide. So this is a meaningless kiss.

Verse 50 — “And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? This is not what the Greek says at all. As if Jesus didn’t know why Judas had come! The Greek says, Friend, do that for which you have come. The word “Friend” in the Greek is not friend but associate. Judas had associated with Him for three years as an unbeliever and Jesus recognises the fact that He had been with him for three years but He doesn’t call him brother or anything to indicate he was saved, and to indicate that he was not saved and different from the others He called him associate.

“Then came they, and laid hands on him.” This means they seized Him violently; “and took him (away).”

Verses 51-56, the third step in Peter’s fall. We are alternating between Peter and the Lord. In one case, Peter, a man to whom doctrine was a detail; then the Lord in His humanity, the one to whom doctrine was everything. We have already studied the first step in Peter’s fall, ignoring the Word of God. The second step in Peter’s fall, failure in prayer. The third step in Peter’s fall is found here, operation energy of the flesh, operation human good.

Verse 51 — “And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.” Matthew wrote this in 68 AD. Who was still alive in 68 AD? Peter. John wrote about 96 AD, and who wasn’t alive in 96 AD? Peter wasn’t, he was dead. So Matthew doesn’t mention the person who did it but John tells us exactly who did it — John 18:10 — and the victim: Malchus, a soldier in the temple guard. Here Matthew just says, “one of them — “which were” is not found in the original — with Jesus.” Later on Peter will not be with Jesus. Peter it was who said, “I will die with thee,” and here is where sincerity does not carry you. He was sincere and he meant it, he was personally very courageous as illustrated by the fact that his sincerity put him into action. Note: Sincerity is not a Christian virtue; sincerity is strictly a human viewpoint failure. The principle is that sincerity doesn’t carry you, doctrine carries you. There is no substitute for doctrine. When Peter should have been relying on the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, he relied on a sword [maxaira]. So here is a perfect illustration of the energy of the flesh backed by a lot of sincerity. Peter intended to keep his boast, he intended to defend the Lord to the end, he intended to die with the Lord; but all good intentions in the world always wind up with human good and human good isn’t worth anything. Peter had good intentions but good intentions are neutralised by ignorance of Bible doctrine. In the plan of God there is a way to operate and this was the time to be praying and this was the time to stand fast, this was the time to do nothing. There is a time to fight but this isn’t it. It is the minus doctrine factor that ruins Peter.

Verse 52 — Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again [turn back] thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” “They that take the sword” is a reference to the principle of capital punishment in Genesis 9:6. Taking the sword here as a non-military man for a non-military situation constitutes violence, and the point is that those who live by killing others the law requires their life. It has nothing to do with military service.

Verse 52 — “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” He mentions twelve legions because that gives one for each of the eleven disciples and one for Him. Notice that Jesus uses the words “my Father” because the first person of the Trinity is the author of the divine plan, and it was part of the Father’s plan for the Son to be betrayed and go to the cross and to be judged for our sins. Peter’s energy of the flesh activity is just getting in the way. If he had just listened to Jesus he would know that he was in the way of God’s plan. Actually, what Judas was doing as an unbeliever fulfilled the plan of God; what Peter was doing as a believer was frustrating the plan of God, just for a second.

Verse 54 — Jesus makes it very clear that the emphasis should not be on a physical sword but on the spiritual sword — scripture, doctrine. “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” In other words, How do you expect the Word of God to be fulfilled when you are swinging that sword around? Peter is obviously ignorant of the plan of God, he doesn’t understand it. Because he doesn’t understand the plan of God he is hindering the plan of God — which means a believer who is ignorant of doctrine hinders the plan of God.

“it must be” — incorrect. The word is our old friend ginomai, which means for something to come into existence, to come to pass. It is an aorist active infinitive here, and it should be translated here, “for thus it is necessary for it [the death of Christ on the cross] to come to pass.” In other words, it hasn’t occurred yet and if Peter doesn’t get out of the way it is in jeopardy. Get out of the way Peter, is the point. Peter is a marvellous person humanly speaking but he is a cluck as far as the plan of God is concerned. And the only reason he is a cluck is because he doesn’t know his doctrine, and yet he has been taught over and over and over again! He has flunked the course three times in a row.

Verse 55 — “In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes [apparently while they were on their way back], Are ye come out against a thief.” This is not thief at all, it means a professional gangster, a criminal. In other words, an armed and dangerous person; “with swords and staves for to take me?” And then we have something of our Lord’s marvellous sense of humour. One of the clear indications that Jesus constantly was thinking and was very relaxed was His sense of humour. These people are armed to the teeth, going out as it were to catch the most dangerous criminal in the world; “I [habitually] sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me” .

Verse 56 — notice the brave, bold band. “But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” This fulfils the Word of God right down to details; “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” Every one of the disciples fled, all of them.

Verse 57 — “And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.” Now Matthew deliberately skips one bit of information. This is the second trial. The first trial was recorded by John and the reason is that John is one of those who didn’t run away and he turned around and followed afar off, as Peter did, and the first trial was held before Annas because Annas was the political boss of Jerusalem. Annas was a former high priest, now he is in charge of “murder incorporated” and the Sanhedrin and about everything else in Jerusalem that was Jewish. This trial cannot go on until it is cleared through Annas, and John who turned around and came back saw that first trial and records it in John 18:12-24. But Matthew skips that one, and he comes to the second trial. In this second trial we have the official court session. The high priest must be present, the Sanhedrin now acts as the supreme court of the land, and they are fully assembled as indicated by the end of verse 57.

Verse 58 — we have Peter’s fourth step in his fall. “But Peter followed him [Christ] afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants to see the end.” He is now completely discouraged, it is all over, there is no hope. He thinks the situation is hopeless because he does not know doctrine. He is easily discouraged as is anyone who is sincere and emotional.

Verse 59 — “Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witnesses against Jesus, to put him to death.” The council means the entire Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the land, and notice they are seeking false witnesses. They know they have nothing against Jesus and under their law they must find two witnesses who will agree and the testimony must be taken separately, and they found it impossible. Hundreds of people lined up to say something against Jesus, no two of them agreed on anything from which they could form an indictment which would put Him to death.

Verse 60 — “But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses.” They worked most of the night to get someone and the two false witnesses are simply two people who said something they thought they could use. What these false witnesses actually said was that He threatened to destroy the temple, which was sacred. The temple speaks about Jesus and these people said that He threatened to destroy it. Actually He was talking about the temple of His body — John 2:18-21; Matthew 24:1,2. He wasn’t talking about the temple at all.

Verse 62 — they operate on this basis. “And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? (When the two witnesses were brought in).” All of this time He is quiet. What is there to say, Jesus knows that He is already condemned.

Verse 63 — “But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God.” This is something that no judge has the right to do under any system of common law under divine institution number 4: to put a person under oath and to make him condemn himself ; “that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God” .He puts Him under oath and Jesus has to tell the truth, and in doing it, as far as they are concerned, He incriminates Himself.

A few things about the trial

1. It was held at night which was contrary to Jewish law, all trials must be held in the daytime.

2. There was no council for the defence at any time, except in the Roman trial where there was a council for the defence in a sense, and that of course was Pontius Pilate.

3. Illegal procedure in the courtroom. In attempting to procure an indictment they deliberately seek false witnesses and they deliberately encourage perjury.

4. The judge attempts to get the accused to incriminate Himself under oath.

5. The judge and the jury are prejudiced.

6. There is violence in the courtroom.

7. They pass sentence without a proper indictment or without a proper trial.

Verse 64 — “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said.” He is under oath now and He has to tell the truth. And He does tell the truth, He cannot lie. He is going to the cross and He has to be perfect, and if He lies He can’t go to the cross. So the issue of the cross is at stake here. “Thou hast said” is affirmative, “I am” in other words.

Then He goes on to get to the true issue. He goes from immediately acknowledging that He is the Son of God to the word “nevertheless” which is an adverb meaning beside or except. The adverb is used to break off a discussion in order to get to the true issue. In other words, Jesus knows He is going to the cross, He knows that this whole trial is a farce and the true issue is what is on the other side of the cross — resurrection, ascension and session. Satan was present in the courtroom and what He is saying now He is saying for the benefit of angels as well as for people, He is saying it for the benefit of Satan. And He says: “Ye shall see the Son of man.” The title which emphasises His humanity. His humanity died on the cross. “Sitting [the doctrine of session after His resurrection and ascension] on the right hand of power [the power of God the Father — omnipotence], and coming in the clouds of heaven [second advent].” So the adverb which is translated “nevertheless” breaks off and moves to the issue. This is a form of construction in the Greek which means you acknowledge that what is said is true, you are the Son of God, and then you get to the issue. And He by-passes the cross knowing that these people will reject the cross but knowing that they are definitely familiar with such passages as Psalm 110:1 where “he Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand”; knowing that the angelic conflict is resolved by the session; knowing that at the second advent the demons will be knocked off the earth as well as Satan; knowing the great issues for the unseen world of angels gathered in the courtroom, and also at the same time hitting a true issue with these who have already rejected the cross as presented in the Old Testament scriptures, and will continue to reject the cross after its historical fulfilment. In fact these same people will observe the Passover which speaks of the cross and they will still reject the cross. So we have an adverb which breaks off an moves to the true issue.

Verse 65 — “Then the high priest rent his clothes.” He lost his temper, something no judge must do. You cannot judge a case and lose your temper; “saying, He hath spoken blasphemy.” The present active participle means he repeated it many times; “what further need have we of witnesses?” So the high priest has rejected the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and he assumes that Jesus Christ has intimidated Himself and that now there was no need for witnesses; “behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.”

Verse 66 — “What think ye? [What is you opinion?] They answered and said, He is guilty of death.” Their minds are made up.

Verse 67 — “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him [punched him]; and others smote him with the palms of their hands.”

Verse 68 — “Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ.” They understand that He has said under oath that He is the Christ; “Who is he that smote thee?” What they do not understand is that billions of years ago He knew the names of every person who punched Him, spit upon Him, slapped Him.

Verse 69 — there is someone who is observing all this, and we have the fifth step in Peter’s fall. “Now Peter sat [kept on sitting] without in the palace: and a damsel [a serving girl] came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee” — “Jesus of Galilee,” title of humanity.

Verse 70 — “But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest.” He pretended complete ignorance.

Verse 71 — “And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth.”

Verse 72 — “And again he denied with an oath [under oath, this is not a reference to profanity], I do not know the man.” Yet it was Peter who said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Verse 73 — “And after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, “Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee.”

Verse 74 — then Peter changed his speech so that no one would think he was with the Lord. “Then he began to curse and to swear [using profanity], saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.” Peter has filled his mind with discouragement, and that easily leads to self-pity and all the rest of it.

Verse 75 — “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him. Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.” He has manufactured his own misery. Notice: We have two disciples who have manufactured their own misery — Peter and Judas. One is an unbeliever; one is a believer. Self-induced misery causes Judas to commit suicide; self-induced misery leads Peter to a maximum bitterness, but it eventuates in his rebound. He rebounds and eventually becomes one of the great believers.

Facts we should notice

1. Peter was saved when this happened.

2. Peter did not lose his salvation by his action.

3. Peter was disciplined as a child of God.

4. Peter did rebound — John 21:15-17.

5. If Peter had died right after his denial he would still go to heaven based on the work of Christ, not on the work of Peter.

6. Rebound [1 John 1:9] gives the believer the privilege of continuing service in phase two.

7. Peter had failed but he was still alive. If you are still alive when the smoke clears then God still has a plan for your life. God’s plan for your life continues as long as you are alive.