[0:00] We're going to turn now to our Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there are some at the! sides, at the back, at the front, all around the place. So do go and pick one up. It'll really help you to see what we're studying together. We're going to be reading in Luke's Gospel near the very end, Luke chapter 22. And in those Vista's Bibles, I think it's page 882.
[0:25] Luke 22. Josh Johnson has been leading us through these later chapters of Luke's Gospel recently. We've come to Luke chapter 22 and verse 39. And we're going to read together through to the end of the chapter. So Luke chapter 22 then at verse 39. And Jesus came out and went, as was his custom, to the mind of olives. And the disciples followed him. When he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw.
[1:04] And he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. When he was still speaking, there came a crowd. And the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who'd come out against them, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you didn't lay your hands on me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him to the high priest's house. And Peter was following at a distance. When they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together,
[2:52] Peter sat down among them. And a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, this man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, woman, I don't know him.
[3:07] A little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. But Peter said, man, I'm not. After an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, certainly this man also was with him. For he too is a Galilean. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you're talking about.
[3:30] And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he'd said to him, before the cock crows today, you'll deny me three times.
[3:51] And he went out and wept bitterly. Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, prophesy, who is it that struck you?
[4:08] They said many other things against him, blaspheming him. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council. And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the son of man shall be seated at the right of the Lord.
[4:41] Right hand of the power of God. So they all said, are you the son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need?
[4:55] We've heard it ourselves from his own lips. Amen. May God bless to us his word. And may we understand the message he has for us today.
[5:11] We'll do open once again in your Bibles to look at chapter 22. Now there is a profound misunderstanding that is never too far away from talk of Jesus.
[5:28] It's a misunderstanding of the very nature of Jesus' glorious work of salvation. And it can manifest in a variety of different ways. Sometimes it is misunderstanding that God will welcome into his heaven those people who are good. Those who are fundamentally good. That of course there is judgment, yes, but it's reserved for bad people, really, truly bad people. And that Christians then are those who are good, those who God can find acceptable. Or the misunderstanding can be about what it will mean for Jesus' kingdom to be spread across this world. And that by tending to all manner of filth and physical needs in this world, poverty and disease and climate concerns, that we can usher in God's kingdom. But all such views miss the weight and wonder of what Jesus was doing on the cross.
[6:28] We've been seeing that Luke's message at the climax of his gospel is that Jesus is the king. But Jesus' kingship is shaped by Jesus also being the Passover lamb, which is Luke's focus from chapter 22 until the end. And we saw last week that Jesus is the true Passover lamb, the one who has come to grant liberty from slavery to Satan and to sin.
[6:54] By his blood, he inaugurates the new covenant. And we saw that hovering over that truth is a conflict.
[7:05] Satan is at work to ensure the son of God is killed. And yet, Satan's apparent victory, the death of the son, is actually his defeat. Because through the scheming of Satan and his sons, God is ultimately working out his eternal plan of redemption. And these dual plans continue to play out. Satan plotting through evil men and God working out salvation. And so Luke means for his readers towards the end of his gospel to stew on the weight and wonder of what Jesus is going to do as the Passover lamb. And we see in Jesus' prayer the true weight of what it is he is to do. And then we see all kinds of misunderstandings as evil wends its way until Jesus is seated at the right hand of God as the rightful king. And so firstly, in our passage this evening, we see a descending darkness that brings redemption. At the cross, Jesus bore the full weight of the awful wrath of God that is rightfully poured out on human sin. This agonizing and anguishing event is the means, the only means, of Jesus bringing redemption to those who respond to him in faith. And it will one day see his kingdom fill the earth.
[8:42] And so the heartbeat of this section is Jesus' prayer as it exposes just how significant, just how seismic is his submission to his father's will that he might indeed be the Passover lamb.
[8:57] And so we see in verses 39 to 46, we see a soul's agony. Jesus' agony at what was to come was not shaped by the fact that he would die, nor even that it would be cruel. The agony that he would face was for all the forsakenness of all of the wrath, all of the hell that sinful humanity deserves, that you and I deserve for the ways we betray God, scorn him and refuse him, choose to go our own way.
[9:28] Well, firstly, notice where this takes place. Matthew and Mark detail the name of this place more specifically than Luke does. They tell us it was Gethsemane, a garden that was at the Mount of Olives. Luke skips that and just notes instead, 39, just that it was at the Mount of Olives.
[9:44] Luke is so careful in his account, he wants us to take note of that. This moment of great significance happens at the Mount of Olives, the very place King David fled to when his reign was opposed by Absalom back in 2 Samuel, just as Jesus' reign is now opposed by the religious establishment seeking to kill him. The Mount of Olives, the very place that God's glory departed to from the temple in Ezekiel 11.
[10:13] God removed his presence and blessing from the temple just as Jesus has been saying is going to happen in the first century. And the Mount of Olives, the very place that Zechariah spoke of when he said that the Lord would stand there and bring in the great day of the Lord. It would be the site of cosmic upheaval and salvation.
[10:34] And so it's here at the Mount of Olives that Jesus comes to pray. And the repeated idea throughout these verses is prayer. Verses 40 to 46 are structured like a sandwich.
[10:45] Verse 40 and 46, the disciples are told to pray. 41 and 45, Jesus kneels and rises from prayer. And at the heart is verses 42 and 44, Jesus agonized prayer to his father with an answer in verse 43, strengthening from an angel.
[11:06] And so what is it that is ahead of Jesus? What is it that has provoked such agony in prayer? Well, look at verse 42, Jesus' prayer. He asks for this cup to be removed from him.
[11:20] Jesus has just spoken of a cup in the passage we were looking at last week in the Last Supper. He isn't meaning that cup, although that cup he was talking about there will ultimately enable the cup of the Last Supper to be a cup of blessing.
[11:33] The cup Jesus is referring to here in verse 42 is a cup mentioned throughout the Bible. It's the cup of God's wrath. Listen to the psalmist who says, Let him rain coals on the wicked, fire and sulfur, and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
[11:53] He says, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. Isaiah says, And this is a real prayer from Jesus.
[12:36] For Jesus, more than anyone, knew the weight of what it was he was about to do. The full horror of the cross for Jesus isn't that he will die as such, or even that it was a cruel and terrible death.
[12:48] The full horror is that as he does so, as he dies, he is receiving the full wages of sin. That's what death is. He will be the substitute who bears the full weight of God's wrath poured out on him, instead of upon sinful humanity.
[13:09] Stepping into your place and my place, and the place of any and all who will respond to him in faith and repentance. On the cross, Jesus is going to be receiving the white-hot wrath of God poured out with all of its intensity, drinking in the shame, drinking in the forsakenness, drinking in utter separation from God.
[13:32] And in doing so, he would be cut off from light and goodness. Listen to James Philip. To have been able to go through it all, and still knew that it was all well, would not have plumbed the depths of the mystery of iniquity.
[13:51] He must forego even that knowledge. It is this that made it a real hell for him. It was there at that point where the Son of God lost the last consciousness of the Father's love and presence, that atonement was made, and pardon was bought and won for men.
[14:10] And here is the reality in all of this. We can try and come up with all the frightening words that we can think of, all the words that communicate horror and communicate the gravity of the situation.
[14:23] We can dig into our thesaurus and find every last one of them. And it could have a real effect on us. It could be chastening and embracing and salutary. But even if we were to do that, I'm not sure we would possibly be able to feel the same agony and anguish to any sort of degree as Jesus does at this very moment.
[14:46] Because his fellowship with God was perfect. How could Jesus be the perfect man, perfectly righteous, and not rage against any prospect, any idea of being cut off from God?
[15:01] You see, nobody has ever been as close to God's heart as Jesus was. And so he knows well both the disgustingness of sin and so the severity with which it must be dealt. And he also knew better than any the dismay there is of being cut off from God.
[15:16] And so it is because of this that he prays that there might be a way of not drinking the cup. This isn't a prayer of flawed character.
[15:29] It's a prayer of flawless character. He knew the full horror of what was to come. And for any truly whole human, that is unthinkable.
[15:42] But that isn't the end of his prayer, is it? For we also see his total submission. Verse 42, If you are willing, remove the cup. And yet not my will, but yours be done.
[15:57] Friends, fear is not the failure of faith. Disobedience is the failure of faith. And Jesus is submissive, obedient to his Father's will.
[16:09] Indeed, here at the most difficult point, the most agonizing point, we see so clearly that Jesus learned obedience, as Hebrews tells us, through what he suffered. And in truth, what else could possibly establish obedience to God's will on earth amongst a people captive to sin?
[16:30] What else could establish that but Jesus himself obeying it to the uttermost, as he does right here in this prayer? Indeed, he does.
[16:42] The exact opposite of Adam. He in the garden said, Not God's will, but mine. Well, Jesus says, Not my will, but thine. Listen to one preacher who says, Jesus drinks the cup of wrath in order that we can drink the cup of blessing.
[17:01] How solemn it is to think that the trembling and stainless soul of Jesus is to be cast into the outer darkness for me who can barely muster mild disgust over my own sin.
[17:18] I've said many times throughout Luke's gospel that Jesus would plead with us through tears not to go the way of disaster, not to refuse him.
[17:29] But here we have to take that further, don't we? And say that he would plead with us through blood, sweat, and tears. Do you see? Verse 43, God's strengthening angel helps Jesus to pray on.
[17:44] And verse 44, he learns obedience through such agony that his sweat becomes like drops of blood. Luke is showing us that Jesus was so prepared to spare us disaster that he endured more anguish than we could possibly imagine.
[18:01] In the only sense possible of this being true, he literally went to hell and back for us so that weak, sinful humanity, you and me, might experience redemption.
[18:18] The weight and wonder of the cross is that Jesus' submission to his Father's will, the weight and wonder of the cross is that Jesus' submission to his Father's will, that he might be our substitute, means that not only as our cup now drunk dry, so that there's no wrath left in it, but actually more than that, it's turned to a cup of blessing that sees us now participate with Christ really and truly at his table.
[18:46] And we will be seated at his table in his kingdom as we come to him, drinking in the well-edged wine of his new creation. Well, onward to this cup, Jesus must go.
[19:02] And that is what we see in verses 47 to 53 through a scurrilous arrest. Jesus doesn't just pray in line with his Father's will. He presses on and obeying it.
[19:14] Evil presses on to kill Jesus, but Jesus presses on to be killed. We have in these verses Judas' twisted and personal betrayal of Jesus with a kiss.
[19:26] We have the cowardice of the religious leaders who come at Jesus away from the crowds. They come at night with a band of armed men. But we see Luke's point in these verses through the disciples' interaction.
[19:39] You see, there is no other way. Jesus' cup cannot be taken from him. Do you see, the disciples, they want to rise to arms. They want to fight. And that would be ideal for the religious leaders, wouldn't it?
[19:52] They could get Jesus on insurrection then. He's a leader of an armed mob. But Jesus says no. And of course, this is no legitimate arrest.
[20:04] It is, as Jesus says, verse 53, this is the hour of the power of darkness. And Luke is showing us that there is no rightful charge to bring against Jesus. And that's Luke's point.
[20:15] The real conflict here is not between armed men. It's not against flesh and blood. It's not to be fought with swords. But it's against powers and principalities, the powers of darkness.
[20:29] And this is a fight that can only be fought on the cross by drinking the cup. I think that's why Luke records Jesus healing the servant's ear.
[20:40] It's a living parable. No, not with weapons, not with worldly force. My battles against the darkness itself. The cup Jesus is about to drink goes far beyond a skirmish on the Mount of Olives.
[20:56] It's the cup that will enable him to heal, not just a wounded ear, but the deeper wound of sin and the dominion of darkness itself. And Jesus' path is a weighty one, but it's a wondrous one for those who will receive his healing touch.
[21:17] Well, secondly, Luke shows us a disciple's downfall that produces restoration. Verses 54 to 65. A disciple's downfall that produces restoration.
[21:28] Now, whilst believers are pruned to blemishes, to bumbling, and to betrayal, there is a real hope that's found in the absolute certainty of God's word. In the face of our weakness, we have been given a rock-solid word from God.
[21:46] Where we are weak and changeable, it is unwavering and certain. And that's what we see here. Even amidst the mess that Jesus' followers make, and even amidst the mockery of Jesus' foos, Jesus' word is unbreakable.
[22:01] His word stands secure. But for Peter, that was a very painful realization at first. See, Jesus is led away, finally arrested, verse 54, and taken to the high priest's house.
[22:16] And notice we're told that Peter followed. Now, remember back in verse 31 that Jesus said to Peter, Satan has demanded to have all of the disciples, to sift them. Moose had scattered.
[22:29] Only Peter lingered. This is likely why Jesus told them to pray that they mightn't fall into temptation. But notice Peter was following, verse 54, at a distance.
[22:42] Peter is concerned in some way to know what's going to happen to Jesus. He was still following, but not too closely. Happy for there to be some distance. And that isn't beyond us, is it?
[22:56] To follow Jesus, yes. To belong in his camp, as it were. To carry the label, Christian. But, to be content to hold him, to hold his church at arm's length.
[23:09] Yes, I'll follow him, but I won't get too close in case it adds wrinkles to how I want life to be. I'll go along to church, but I don't want to do anything like become a member or serve.
[23:20] It's a private thing for me, just for me. I want a safe distance. And now, it's often easy to pile on to people in the Bible for their bumbling and stumbling, and yet, how often do we make similar mistakes?
[23:35] How often do we see in ourselves the same weakness of faith? Well, here, Peter's arm's length following of Jesus becomes more than that, doesn't it?
[23:46] For all of a sudden, he was forced to pick a side. At a distance, it can be easy to live in two camps. Yes, I'm a Christian, but you know, when I'm at work, I just keep my head down and I don't let that figure too much.
[24:00] But a time of decision usually comes, doesn't it? And verse 55, as they sit around the fire in the courtyard, it comes for Peter. Verse 56, a girl says, this man also was with him.
[24:12] He's one of them. Look, this criminal that's been arrested, this blasphemer, the one who's numbered among the transgressors, he was with him too. Verse 57, Peter says, women, I do not know him.
[24:28] Distance to Jesus quickly becomes denial of Jesus. There's a warning there for us, isn't there? This is a picture of betrayal. Verse 58, another one says the same, you're one of them.
[24:42] I'm not, says Peter. And then notice the third time, Luke adds a telling detail. An hour passes. And still in the face of people saying he was with Jesus, Peter insists, I do not know what you're talking about.
[24:57] It's an interesting little detail, that isn't it? The interval of an hour. You see, this isn't something that's taken Peter by surprise. He's misspoken. Time and again he's asked.
[25:08] And over the course of over an hour, he continues to say, I do not know Jesus. It's a resolved betrayal. Denying Jesus again and again. Now, it's uncomfortable to do this, but the reality is that Peter's downfall here is of the same order as Judas' back in verse 4.
[25:31] It might be preferable to separate them, to distinguish between them, but the reality is that they both abandon and disown Jesus. So there is similarity, but there is also a difference.
[25:43] Listen again to James Philip. They both disowned Christ, and Christ's attitude was the same to both. He gave Peter a look of compassion, and Judas a word of compassion.
[25:56] Friend, Peter was restored, Judas was not. But the reason for this is not that Peter's sin was less heinous than Judas's.
[26:07] Rather, it was that Peter showed repentance, Judas' only remorse. Peter went out and wept bitterly, Judas went out and hanged himself. Peter was restored, that no one need despair of mercy.
[26:23] Having failed, Judas went out into the darkness of night, that one might not presume on mercy. You see, the similarity is uncomfortable, because we know all too well that Peter's actions could be our actions.
[26:39] We can envisage that of ourselves, and face it with enough pressure. But we like to think that we wouldn't ever do a Judas and collude to see Jesus destroyed. The similarity is uncomfortable, but the reality is that sin is a betrayal of God.
[26:57] Both Judas and Peter betrayed God. And in truth, every time we choose our way over God's, every time we choose this world over his word, every time we believe sin's lie, that it will do us good, that it will give us something that we lack, instead of trusting that God knows what is best, that's a betrayal of him, isn't it?
[27:23] But, but, here with Peter, hope hangs in the air. Look at the last three words of verse 60, the rooster crewed.
[27:34] here is evidence of Jesus' unbreakable word. Here is the sifting. Here was Satan prowling.
[27:46] Here was Satan demanding to have Peter and having him. Look back at, look back at verse 34. Jesus told people, told Peter what would happen.
[27:58] The rooster won't crew until you've denied me three times. And so, what a gut punch for Peter. What a realization that would have been for all of his big claims that he would follow Jesus to prison and even death.
[28:13] Here was his betrayal laid bare. Here was his pride, his ego, his weakness laid bare. Indeed, there's an irony in what Peter says in his denials, isn't there? When he says, I do not know him, there was truth in those words.
[28:28] Peter had much to learn, yes, about himself, but also about Jesus. But how often is it the case that we only really learn the lessons that we need to learn when we're humbled and laid bare?
[28:42] Very often there has to be something of a death for a new life to bloom. And so do you see at Peter's lowest point now as he realizes the reality about himself and verse 62 weeps about it, he also receives yet again the gracious embrace of the Lord Jesus.
[29:00] And this is astonishing to think of, isn't it? Here was Jesus being led to various kangaroo courts that were going to sentence him to death.
[29:11] Here was Jesus walking on the path to drink the cup of God's wrath that had prompted such agony and anguish. And look at what he has the time to do, the inclination to do.
[29:22] Verse 61, he turns and looks at Peter. That's not an incidental detail. It can't be.
[29:32] Luke doesn't work like that. But also look at the timing. The rooster crews, crewing as Peter's third denial happens and verse 61, straight away the Lord turns to look at him.
[29:46] This was a look of utter compassion, love, grace. But of course that's what Jesus would do. At his darkest hour, he's tending to his friends, propping them up in their failure.
[30:02] That's what Jesus is like. That's why he will drink the cup. Now this look goes hand in hand with Peter recalling Jesus' words.
[30:15] And it goes hand in hand with his weeping. But isn't Jesus' look pregnant with meaning. I take it that it is saying to Peter, remember my words to you, Peter, and remember all of them.
[30:32] Yes, Peter, I said you'd fall. Yes, I told you about the rooster. I told you that Satan was after you. But I also told you that I prayed for you. And I said, when you turn again, strengthen your brothers.
[30:50] there is certainty to Jesus' words. And through Peter's tears, that same word would be dawning on him. If the rejection was true, if the rooster was true, so too was Peter's return and his restoration.
[31:06] And so too with his rallying of his brothers. It's striking that in the midst of the events leading up to Jesus' death and resurrection, amidst trials before high priests and governors and kings, amid pictures of the gravity of what Jesus was going to do, that we get this little incident.
[31:24] Placed here, I take it, to put flesh on profound truths that Luke is showing us. Here in Peter, we see an enfleshed example of one who deserves the white hot wrath of God, the forsakenness that Jesus was to drink, one who has known great privilege at God's hand, but betrays him.
[31:44] And yet, we also see Jesus full of compassion, undertaking to restore and redeem fallen, broken, sinful humanity.
[31:57] I don't need to ask folks in here to raise their hands if they sit here as Christians who've made a mess, because I know the answer. Everyone here has.
[32:09] Everyone here has in some way betrayed God, even as believers. Of course we have. compassion is present and real today in the offer of the gospel.
[32:24] Jesus has drunk all the wrath that is poured out for our betrayal, and he means to restore us and redeem us. For Jesus' word is still unbreakable, only now his is a final word, a word that offers his finished work, to those who will receive it.
[32:49] In case the incident with Peter isn't enough to convince us of Jesus' certain word, I think Luke also gives us this mockery in verses 63 to 65 as a further confirmation. You see, the misunderstandings continue.
[33:02] Here we have soldiers keeping watch of Jesus, and they mock him and beat him. And as a bit of added sport, they invent a game, verse 64, we're going to blindfold you Jesus, someone's going to pelt you and beat you, and then you prove what a wonderful prophet you are by telling us who's beating you up.
[33:20] Prove your prophesying credentials, they're saying. But do you see how Luke is showing those credentials in far more significant ways than in a cruel game? In Peter, his words have proven true, haven't they?
[33:36] Unbreakable. The cock will crow. And it did. And so his words have already been fulfilled in that instance, but there's an added irony.
[33:48] The very mocking and beating these soldiers do only serves to fulfill Jesus' words. He said back in chapter 18, verse 32, I will be delivered over to be mocked and shamefully treated and flogged.
[34:03] You see, evil men press on with their devilish schemes and Jesus presses onto the cross. His words are certain. He does not lie. His purposes will never fail. His words will never fall to the ground.
[34:16] And in the midst of our own weakness, when we are faced with a kind of reality check that our sin. It is the surety of Jesus' words that we need.
[34:30] Like the words he's already spoken to Peter, this is my body which is given for you. This is my blood poured out for you. Jesus' sure words that tell us that failure needn't be fatal and his sure words that tell us after failure can be fruitfulness.
[34:55] You see that was his message to Peter. When you return strengthen your brothers. Failure needn't be fatal.
[35:06] After failure can be fruitfulness. Well finally Luke shows us a damning declaration that establishes a rain in verses 66 to 71. A damning declaration that establishes a rain.
[35:21] Now refusing to accept Jesus as the true king of this world and the cosmos will not hinder him from claiming his throne. Indeed here Luke shows us that every attempt by Satan and the religious establishment and the Roman empire to halt Jesus' coronation only hastens it.
[35:42] Jesus' condemnation and death ultimately is the very thing that establishes his throne at the right hand of God. He's brought before the council made up of all the religious leaders and they want to know what Jesus claims about himself verse 67 and again there in verse 70 but they don't actually care about what is true.
[36:06] All they're after is verse 71 testimony evidence against him. They are after a damning declaration that Jesus doesn't dance to the tune of this world does he?
[36:18] Verse 67 he doesn't answer on their terms because he knows they will not believe their hearts are set on evil their allied to Satan to see Jesus killed but look at what Jesus does say in verse 69
[37:31] Jesus is saying of himself that he is the king of God's eternal kingdom and as God he'll be seated at the father's right hand Jesus response goes further than what his accusers were even asking his declaration is even more damning than they could imagine but when Jesus says from now on how is it that that's going to happen well I think behind all of this are two ideas about Jesus obedience theologians talk about Jesus active obedience that is his record of perfect obedience worked out through his life that believers then receive as theirs you see Jesus has already been offered a kingdom in Luke back in the wilderness that was how Satan tempted him but Jesus struck a decisive blow to Satan with his act of obedience his perfect obedience Jesus is portrayed back in Luke 4 as the second
[38:33] Adam the true Israel he's shown us as a representative figure and against all the temptations including being offered a kingdom like in Daniel 7 Jesus refuses he's perfectly obedient to God that is not the way his kingdom is going to be established not being given by Satan rather it's going to happen through his death and I think Luke is showing us here that Jesus passive obedience that is his willing death on the cross as a substitute bearing the penalty of sin Jesus passive will combine with his active obedience seen in the wilderness seen in his prayer of submission to God's will and together they qualify him to sit at the right hand of God and establish his reign and his kingdom forever by defeating Satan fully and finally and in so doing enables him to draw a people perfectly to himself a people to rule and share his rule a people who have no need to fear sin's penalty because
[39:36] Jesus paid it a people declared righteous because they gain Christ's perfect righteousness that's what he's saying but notice the irony we've had it throughout this passage the crowds have weapons to detain and defend Jesus when this is a conflict that's far more which is far above physical warfare another irony Peter saying that he doesn't know Jesus which exposes that he doesn't really know Jesus we see mockery about Jesus being a prophet that itself proves Jesus prophecy true and here entrapment around Jesus claims to be Lord and King that only serves to establish Jesus reign the conclusion verse 71 that they have all the evidence they need to convict Jesus they are satisfied they've got it that is the very thing that we'll see his identity come into full bloom this damning declaration leads to
[40:37] Jesus being Jesus reign being established Luke is showing us that Jesus ultimate purpose is the establishment of his kingdom throughout this whole earth and all the twisted darkened unbelief that this world has will not stand in this way that is to say that for all the darkness that hangs over this passage there is an future that is secured a kingdom that cannot be shaken promises that cannot feel a providence that reveals it chooses that on the darkest night in human history there stood a purpose that was unstoppable and it wasn't that evil would flourish and win quite the opposite that for all that this world can through at Jesus at his church at his people that even their best efforts will not frustrate his kingdom but actually may even facilitate it that's the irony here maybe some here are in the midst of perplexity and pain at the hands of those who hate
[41:39] God well we see here that such things won't halt Jesus kingdom and his purposes and might be used to hasten it that doesn't remove the pain if that's the situation you're in but it might just give us some added resolve Jesus is seized mocked beaten put on trial sentenced!
[42:03] condemned! There's a tapestry of corruption at play to see these things happen all the while in all there's one whose hand is on the wheel one whose control presses on unhindered and it's Jesus carrying out the will and purpose of his father unstoppably unbreakably unmistakably so that the night of greatest darkness is actually the night from which true light can be found you see from now on the son of man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God and from there he beckons his people to his table to his kingdom to drink not from a cup of wrath but from a cup of blessing and so Jesus through tears through sweat drops of blood pleads with us which cup will you drink which cup will you drink let's pray
[43:08] Lord God we marvel at the lengths Jesus has gone to for us and we ask now that you would grant us your grace and help to trust fully in Jesus finished work and help us that we would hold nothing in this world as a rival for what we have in him and so help us to resist temptation spare us from betrayal oh Lord our hearts are prone to wonder but emblazen on our minds our hearts our souls the compelling compassion of Jesus and keep us turning to him and we ask it in his name amen