Truth and Confusion

Truth and Confusion
Matt. 26:31-35

31 Then [tote] saith [lego] Jesus [Iesous] unto them [autos] , All [pas] ye [humeis] shall be offended [skandalizo] because [en] of me [en] [emoi] this [taute] night [nux] : for [gar] it is written [grapho] , I will smite [patasso] the shepherd [poimen] , and [kai] the sheep [probaton] of the flock [poimne] shall be scattered abroad [diaskorpizo] .
32 But [de] after [meta] I [me] am risen again [egeiro] , I will go before [proago] you [humas] into [eis] Galilee [Galilaia] .
33 Peter [Petros] answered [apokrinomai] and [de] said [epo] unto him [autos] , Though [ei kai] all [pas] men shall be offended [skandalizo] because [en] of thee [soi] , yet will I [ego] never [oudepote] be offended [skandalizo] .
34 Jesus [Iesous] said [phemi] unto him [autos] , Verily [amen] I say [lego] unto thee [soi] , That [hoti] this [en] [taute] night [nux] , before [prin] the cock [alektor] crow [phoneo] , thou shalt deny [aparneomai] me [me] thrice [tris] .
35 Peter [Petros] said [lego] unto him [autos] , Though [kan] I [me] should [dei] die [apothnesko] with [sun] thee [soi] , yet [ou me] will I [aparneomai] not [ou me] deny [aparneomai] thee [se] . Likewise [homoios] also [kai] said [epo] all [pas] the disciples [mathetes] . KJV-Interlinear

31 Then Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, 'I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.' 32 'But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.' 33 But Peter answered and said to Him, 'Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.' 34 Jesus said to him, 'Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.' 35 Peter said to Him, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.' All the disciples said the same thing too. NASB

The apostles learned that night, that without His (Christ's) help, they and certainly no one, can have any amount of faith or courage when faced with the opposing elements of this world.

The apostles thought highly of themselves. Even on this eve before the crucifixion, they could not bring themselves to the point of believing that the man with whom they had lived for these three plus years, the one who they believed to be the Messiah, was going to be killed, ever, let alone on the very next day following this final Passover meal.

Now Jesus tells them that they will all scatter with the wind when He is taken, and they just object all over themselves. Peter just cannot believe that he will deny Christ three times in this same night, and before the break of dawn.

Yet the apostles, those eleven who remain, were earlier arguing over their respective roles in heaven. Roles that they presumed they would have automatically, and yet were roles which they had no right in claiming. It would be these same men who will run out on Christ in His greatest hour of need (from the human viewpoint), and after the Feast of Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit, then these faithless cowards will become the strong backbone upon which the Christian faith will be constructed.

But for now they needed to be put in their place. They did not believe that Jesus was going to leave them. They fully believed that they were in preeminent positions in history. And now they are being told that they were going to scatter like lost sheep when the shepherd is gone. They just could not believe that all of this, their relationship with Christ, was going to come to a crashing halt.

And so it is with anyone who presumes he has a solid faith in God and Christ, and yet is inconsistent in his daily Bible study. It is difficult enough for a mature believer to face the lions den, so it is near impossible for a person who is less than mature in their spiritual growth.

When we live in a society of relative safety and prosperity, bravery and courage come easily. But when life brings pressures against us, it is ever so easy to look for others to blame. It is ever so easy to deny ones values and principles in life in such a way as to relieve the pressure or attention on yourself, and to compromise yourself out of your predicament.

This is what the apostles did. They denied Christ by running and hiding. They did not want to get involved with the authorities. They did not want to face their own execution. Recall it was only a short time earlier that they did not want to go to Bethany to see Lazarus for fear of being stoned to death. And yet this same Jesus with whom they have spent their last three years (put some emphasis on the 'three years'), the one who had cured every known ill of mankind, the one who even raised the dead back to life, they still did not believe His words when He told them how things were going to be.

They were not very familiar with the scriptures. They did not know of Zech. 13:7, from which this latest prophecy was quoted by Jesus. They believed what they wanted to believe, and refused to believe otherwise. So when this type of thinking become prevalent in ones mind, then you can fully expect some very big disaster to come into the life of that person.

God cannot and will not use you in His plan until your attitude becomes humbled such that you think more of Him than you do of yourself.

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