Well, please do stand with me as we hear God's Word read, and we will read again just following the gospel narrative in Matthew 26, and we'll read from verse 46. Let us hear the Word of God. Jesus said to His disciples, rise, let us be going. That is to say, He is marching into the conflict, not running from the conflict. Behold, my betrayer is at hand. While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man, seize him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, greetings, Rabbi, and he kissed him. Jesus said to him, friend, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place. for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? At that hour, Jesus said to the crowds, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day, I sat in the temple teaching and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death. but they found none. Though many false witnesses came forward, at last two came forward and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said so. But I tell you from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? They answered, he deserves death. Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him saying, prophesy to us you Christ. Who is it that struck you? Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus, the Galilean. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you mean. And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him. And she said to the bystanders, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again, he denied it with an oath, I do not know the man. After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you. Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know the man. And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate, the governor. Amen. Please be seated. I wonder how you read the Gospels. Hopefully, you do read the Gospels and read them regularly. But how do you read the Gospels? One of the great dangers I think we face, especially when we read the Gospels, is that we read them to find ourselves. We're looking for encouragement, comfort, strength, help, wisdom. We're looking to see our faith built up. We're looking to be led into the way that the Lord has set before us, and so we read the Scriptures and we're looking to find ourselves. We're looking for texts to encourage us richly, to reassure us, to strengthen us. I want to say this morning that that is not how you should read the Gospels. We should read the Gospels not first to find ourselves, but to meet with God. Let me illustrate it from my own experience. Some years ago in Cambridge, when I was the minister of the Presbyterian Church there, we had a succession of exceptionally fine assistants. And one of them, one of the finest young Christian men I've ever met, preached one Sunday evening. I regularly would look to have the young men of the congregation who sensed a call to the ministry to have their gifts tested. And this young man preached, and he preached on the passage in Luke 7, where the sinful woman, as she is described, anoints Jesus. It's a beautiful passage, you'll remember. What she has done, Jesus said, will be spoken of throughout the ages. The following week, I met up with our young assistant, as I would do, and we would go over the sermon. I never liked doing that. I'm so aware of the inadequacies that I have, but anyway, it's important to do it. So I said to the young man, that was an exceptionally fine sermon. Thank you so much. And I meant that. He said, oh, oh, thank you, Ian. I'm really grateful for that. And then I said to him, tell me in a sentence, what was your sermon about? Condense it for me in a sentence. And he thought and he said, it was about the extravagance of the woman's love to Christ. I said, that's exactly what your sermon was. Now tell me what your sermon should have been about. And he looked at me and in an instant he got it. He said, I missed the point, didn't I? It's not about the extravagance of the woman's love to Christ. It's about the extravagance of the Savior's love to the woman. The passage was about Jesus, but he found in it himself, he was looking at it horizontally and not vertically. And I think this is a temptation that we have when we read the Gospels especially. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ is being set before us. In the Gospels, the Holy Spirit is portraying to us the grace and glory of Christ. I don't mean we don't find ourselves in the Gospels. I don't mean that we don't gain comfort and help and encouragement and reassurance. I don't mean that at all. But the way the Word of God and the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures want to minister to us is to hold before us the multifaceted glory and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the very obvious ways that the gospel writers do that is to spend almost one-third to one-half of the space of their gospels detailing the last week. of Jesus' life up to His death on the cross. It's utterly disproportionate, isn't it? Now, the Gospels are not biographies at all. They are Gospels. They are good news. They are theologically constructed, evangelistic John puts it most vividly towards the end of his gospel, these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. It's all about Jesus. And the way the gospels are constructed, shouts that out loudly to us. Probably John's gospel most dramatically. Almost one half of John's gospel is devoted to the last week of the Savior's life. And in doing that, the gospels by their very structure are making a silent but profoundly eloquent point. It's almost a confession of faith. The structure of the Gospels are almost in themselves confessions of faith, because they're saying to the people to whom they were written, the Gentile world, the Jewish world, far from being embarrassed by a crucified Messiah, we glory in this crucified Messiah. and we proudly and unashamedly proclaim Him to the world as its Savior. Now, we saw in our previous study this morning that the cross was not a tragedy that Jesus sought to avoid. It was a divinely appointed event that He willingly embraced. Just notice in verse 56 the point that Jesus makes, or that Matthew in an explanatory comment makes, but all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Jesus understood that He was living out a life that had been prophesied of the Messiah. All of His life was shaped and styled, was contoured, governed, overseen, directed by what God had revealed concerning His promised Messiah in the Old Testament. He was embracing the will of the Father. He was embracing the Scriptures. He was living out in obedience what the Scriptures testified concerning Him. Remember in John 12, isn't it, verse 27 or about there, Jesus says, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say, Father, rescue me from this hour? No, for this hour I was born into the world." What we see in our Lord Jesus Christ here, as we saw earlier, is that He is living out humble, submissive, loving obedience to the Father who is orchestrating all things. The sovereignty of God is not presented to us in the Bible as a puzzle to solve. but as a pillow to rest our weary heads upon. God's sovereignty is unabridged. He has decreed all things from times eternal. There isn't a rogue atom in the cosmos. He is the predestinating sovereign God of time and eternity. How we can begin to begin to fathom that is beyond all our comprehensions, but we're not intended to, we're not expected to. And in His holy humanity, Jesus is trusting in the sovereign predestinating will of His heavenly Father. You mustn't think that Jesus' humanity was omniscient, that He knew all things, that He knew in His holy humanity every single detail. There were times in the Gospels He admits ignorance, doesn't He? Because His humanity isn't omniscient. He didn't know all things, if it were. It wouldn't be a true humanity, and He couldn't therefore stand before God as one of us and as one for us. He's living out His life, marching to the destiny ordained for Him, not because fate demanded it, not because wicked men planned it, but because omnipotent love decreed it. If I could leave you with one thing this morning or tomorrow, it would simply be this. It was the love of God that sent into the world His only begotten Son to be the Savior of the world. This is what you need to understand, that everything that is unfolding here is unfolding according to the loving kindness and tender mercy of Almighty God. Jesus has not come into the world to win the Father's love. He has come as the gift of the Father's love. You might think, Ian, that's so basic. That's so basic, I wonder why you're even mentioning it. Well, I'll tell you why I'm mentioning it. Again, some years ago in Cambridge, one of our very fine assistants, another one this time, at the end of an evening service, I pronounced the benediction. I was walking up to Centre Island. I could see my young brother at the back. I could see from his face that something was not right. And I stopped and I said, are you okay? And he just looked at me and his face was ashen. And he said, I don't think I've ever really understood that. And I began to think, well, what on earth did I say that was so profound? So, so profound that this well-read, well-taught young man, and he could see that I was perplexed, and he looked at me and he said this, I don't think I've ever really understood. that Jesus did not come to win the Father's love for me, but that He came as the gift of the Father's love to me." And I remember thinking, how is that possible? How is that possible? How could you not understand this most fundamental, basic truth about the good news of God? But I think actually it's more common than you could imagine. John Owen, probably weary of hearing John Owen from me, but in volume two, Communion with God, Owen wrote these words, how few of the saints are experimentally acquainted with the privilege of holding communion with the Father in love. With what anxious, doubtful thoughts do they look upon him? What fears, what questionings are there of his goodwill and kindness? Now listen to this, at the best, many, many think There is no sweetness at all in Him towards us but what has been purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus. And Owen, if you know Volume 2 at all in any way, goes on to pastor people who have this ingrained belief that Jesus came and by His cross merited the love of God for His people. Owen says, you're turning the gospel on its head. The love of God is the fountainhead of the gospel. Everything flows to us out of the prevenient, gracious, sovereign, kind mercy and love of the heavenly Father. And so when we read the gospel narratives, you need to read them with that dynamic at its heart. It's the love of the Father that has sent the Son. and sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Well, look with me a little more closely then at the text. In verses 47 to 56, we see Judas doing his devilish deed. He pretends, verse 49, you notice, to be intimate with Jesus, but what is he? He's a wolf in sheep's clothing. What he does, he does freely, But what he does is to fulfill the Holy Scriptures. Verse 53, verse 54, how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? And again, verse 56, but all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. The Bible is very unsettling in its honesty. Judas, how did Judas become one of the inner circle of the Son of God? Jesus chose him, handpicked him, and yet Within the hand-picked, chosen twelve, there was a traitor. I've often wondered why the Lord did that. What Judas does, he does freely. But why on earth was someone like him found among the inner circle of the Son of God? Well, there's much we could say, but I've no doubt that one of the great lessons that the gospel narrative is seeking to impress on us is that even at its purest and best, the church of Jesus Christ is a mixed multitude. There are always traitors in the midst. And the disciples never suspected Judas, did they? Till the very end, he was not someone that they were always looking at thinking, what's he doing here? The Bible is very upfront and very unsettlingly upfront in impressing upon us the sad reality that no matter how hard and graciously and perseveringly we seek to make the people of God pure and holy, there will always be a traitor, a wolf in sheep's clothing. And yet, you know, what stands out in the narrative is, and probably the best way to read the narrative is to start at the beginning of chapter 26 and just read it in a one or write through. What stands out in the narrative is Jesus' calm, commanding presence. The turmoil and agony of Gethsemane are behind Him. He's unfazed by the machinations of Judas and his cohorts. And the question that surely must arise is, how was He able to be so unfazed How was he able to be so calm and commanding in the midst of tumult and turmoil? How was that possible? Is his humanity a charade? Was there something otherworldly about his humanity? Was it simply an illusion? Well, it wasn't an illusion. And I think in verse 53, Jesus helps us to understand how it was possible for Him to be so calm and collected and commanding in the midst of the tumult and the turmoil. He says in verse 53, do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father? And He will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels. You see what Jesus is saying? He's saying, I am living by faith under the sovereign lordship of my Father who art in heaven." He is living out as the man of faith, the prototypical man of faith, he is living out his humble, holy obedience to his Father in heaven. For Jesus to call on the Father to send the twelve legions of angels would have meant what? It would have meant Him abandoning the will of the Father. But He had come from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. There is something wonderfully, richly encouraging and reassuring that Jesus, our covenant Head, in whom we are by grace through faith, is able in the midst of the tumults and turmoils of life to walk, dare I say, even serenely in the midst of the tumults and turmoils. And the Christian believer, the frailest, the weakest, the youngest, the poorest, the neediest, is in Christ. I probably used this illustration more than I should. At the end of the Civil War or War of Northern Aggression, however you want to describe it, Two men are walking through a city in the West. There's tumult and turmoil all around. And they began walking towards one another. And they began to fix their gaze steadfastly on one another. And they walked and walked until they were face to face, almost nose to nose. And one of the men took his forefinger and pressed it against the other man's chest and said, what's the chief end of man? And the man replied, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And the first man replied, I knew you were a shorter catechism boy by the way you walked. You know what he was saying, tumult and turmoil were all around him, but there was something calm and collected and even serene about the man because his times were in higher hands. He was not at the mercy of turmoil and tumult. And it's the same here with our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verses 57 to 68, we see Jesus being seized and led before Caiaphas, the high priest, and the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. And it's a tragic scene that is being depicted for us from verse 59, isn't it? They're seeking false testimony about Jesus that they might put him to death, but they find none, though many false witnesses came forward. And at last two came forward and said, this man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And of course, it's recorded for us in John chapter two, he was speaking about the temple of his body. And the high priest stood up and said, "'Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?' And Jesus," now notice this, "'remained silent.'" Now, here's a question. Why did he remain silent? Why did he remain silent in the face of such concocted accusations? If people told lies about you, would you not want to defend yourself? Would you not want the lies to be exposed for the falsehoods that they were? Jesus remained silent. He's silent before Caiaphas. In Luke 23, we see He's silent before Herod. And then later on in Matthew 27, He's silent before Pilate. Why was He silent? Well, possibly He was saying in His silence, these men are not worthy. of any response. I will not dignify their lies, their treacheries, their deceits and blasphemies with response. I will remain with dignified silence." That's possible. But I think John Calvin has a more insightful, penetrating understanding of the silence of Jesus. Listen to what Calvin writes. that we may not, like Pilate, wonder at the silence of Christ, as if it had been unreasonable. We must attend to the purpose of God, who determined that His Son, whom He had appointed to be a sacrifice to atone for our sins, should be condemned as guilty in our room, though He Himself was pure. What were the charges being leveled against the Savior? The charges of blasphemy and rebellion, you remember. What are the two charges that God has essentially against us in our first covenant head, Adam? Blasphemy and rebellion. Speaking evil of God and rebelling against the rule, the love, and the law of God. Why does Jesus remain silent? Because He's got nothing to say. Because He's standing there for us who have nothing to say. We don't have one word to utter in our defense. Not one protestation. All we can do is hang our heads and say, mea maxima culpa, mea maxima culpa, guilty, greatly guilty. God be merciful to me, the sinner. We've got no extenuations to make. And as our covenant head, he's silent. As our covenant head, he is silent, because he's there not for himself. He's there for his people. And the narrative continues. They mock. They deride. They struck him. Some slapped him, they spit in his face. I can never read those words without deep emotion. The God who spoke the cosmos into being, by whom and through whom are all things, and his creature spat in his face. He was reviled and he reviled not in return. Why? Because in my place condemned he stood. Can you imagine? No, we can't, but can you imagine? He who said, let there be, and there was, and has spit dripping down His human face. Mocked, spat upon, and as we shall see tomorrow, God willing, soon to be immolated on Calvary's cross. You know, when I read that, the two... My, oh my, what sin, what grievous sin. But then the second thought is always, I think this, here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood. And it's at this very moment, at this epochal omega moment, that Peter's faith fails so spectacularly, verses 69 to 75. Now, Peter had been told by Jesus that he would fall away, that he would fail him, and Peter protested, you remember, even though they all deny you, you can count on me. You can count on me, Jesus. I will stand by you to the end. Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. Peter wouldn't believe what his Lord and Master said would happen. But now he finds himself in the crucible. And it's only when you're in the crucible that you discover the quality of your faith. It's only when you're in the crucible of affliction that you discover where you really are in your Christian life, isn't that so true? You're one of Jesus' men, not me, he says, not me. Oh, you certainly are. Your accent betrays you. Not me, not me, I don't know the man. Oh, certainly, certainly you're one of them. And with curses, Peter denies and the cock crows and Peter goes out and weeps bitterly. Have you ever wondered about Peter's failure? What was it that caused his faith to collapse so spectacularly? Even though they all leave you, you can count on me. If I have to die with you, I'll die. And in a few short moments, I don't know the man. Well, perhaps on the surface, it would seem there was a collapse of courage. Peter was bold. And probably, and I don't think this is over-psychologizing the issue, probably if there was one area of life where you felt you could count on Peter, it would be his courage. He was bold. He was an upfront man. He was a leader. And if you ask Peter, Peter, what is your great strength? My boldness, my courage. but his perceived strength was actually his greatest weakness. What he thought was his greatest strength was actually his point of weakness. You see, earlier Jesus had said to his disciples, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. almost his last words to the disciples before the cross, watch and pray. Not just pray, but watch and pray. Where you think you are strong, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. There was a collapse of courage. But I don't think that is the reason why Peter's faith failed so spectacularly. There was something deeper than that. When the Lord rehabilitates Peter after the resurrection, remember Jesus' words to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Three times, three times to echo and mirror the three defections of Peter. Three times Jesus says, Peter, do you love me? You see what Jesus is saying to Peter? Peter, the reason why your faith failed so spectacularly was not because you lack courage. That was a symptom of something deeper. You lack love for me. So here's the issue, Peter. Do you love me? Every sin that you and I commit, every sin at its root, is because we do not love Christ as we should. Every sin, let me say it again, every sin is the result of a failure to love Christ as we should. What is the first and greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the word love has the idea of covenant loyalty and faithfulness. The Christian religion is at heart deeply affectional and experiential. My son, give me your heart. Now, we rightly esteem confessional orthodoxy. We rightly esteem how vital it is to know the great doctrines of the gospel. But beloved, we need to know that there is no substitute for loving him who first loved us. No substitute. Same with a father with his children. Joan and I have four children, now six grandchildren. I've listened recently to a little boy to go with the five girls. What is it you look for and long for from your children, your grandchildren? Well, you know, I would love them to excel in every sphere of life. And they've all done remarkably well educationally. And I'd love them to know languages wonderfully well. I'd love them to read more of Calvin and Owen. And you could go on and on. But what's the one thing you would substitute nothing for? Love me. Love me. And you see, we could read Peter's defection and say, you know, what a collapse here, what a collapse there, but surely we have to probe a little deeper, as I said in the introduction, and say, not what can I learn from Peter here, but is there something deeper? Yes, there is. Peter hadn't been as captivated and captured as he thought he had by the love of God. And so chapter 27 begins, we'll draw to a close. They bound him, delivered him over. And the language is very striking actually. They bound him, they handed him over. You see, at a purely human and observable level. Jesus ended up where he ended up because the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders handed him over. Judas handed him over. It's the same language. and then later Pilate would hand Jesus over. It's the same verbal route. But there is something, as I've said, deeper and profounder. You know Galatians 2.20, one of my favorite, if you have favorite Bible texts, The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me. It's the same verbal form. Or Romans 8, 32, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. It's the same verbal form. The Jewish leaders delivered him up. Judas delivered him up. Pilate delivered him up. Ah, but Jesus delivered up himself. and the Father delivered him up for us all. So who delivered up Jesus to die? Asked Octavius Winslow. Not Judas for money, not the Jews for envy, not Pilate for fear, but the Father for love. See, love is the fountainhead of the gospel. God so loved the world. I'm sure I've told you this before. I can remember still the very first time I ever heard those words. I was almost 17 years of age. I didn't possess a Bible. I didn't know anything in the Bible except I could recite David's lament over Saul on Mount Gilboa. because my primary school teacher thought that would be a good thing for the class of 11-year-olds to learn. And a boy at school took me along to a young adult's Bible class one Sunday afternoon. I'd met him late the previous night. I'd been out in the town. He had been at a gospel something. And I went along, and I remember hearing for the first time, God, so loved the world. And I remember sitting and beginning to ask myself questions somewhat bewilderingly. Why would God do that? Was there anything in me that would make him do that? No. Had I wanted him to do that? No. And I remember sitting, puzzled, trying to make sense of something I couldn't make sense of, little knowing that 50 years later, I still wouldn't be able to make any sense of it. Why, oh Lord, such love to me? And the answer comes back. because it pleased me so to do. You see, every Christian has the same testimony. Used to be in churches, you would have testimony evenings, and people would give these often very interesting, sometimes remarkable testimonies of how the Lord brought them to faith in Jesus Christ. But you know, when you strip away all the circumstances, we have the identical testimony. Every Christian has the same testimony. Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified, teach me, Lord, on earth to know By my love, how much I owe. Why is anyone a Christian? Because God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten son. And that's why the lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Because it's all of him. It's all about him, and it's all of him. So God willing, tomorrow morning, Sunday school hour, we'll continue to amble our way through the narrative and see that increasingly the spotlight shines singularly and uniquely on the sun. who had never known from times eternal anything but unblemished fellowship with the Father until a moment in time and space when he was crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And if we could have listened in to the portals of heaven, I have little doubt the voice of the Father would be heard. For them, all for them. May the Lord bless to us his word.