Luke 22:47-62
The Hardest Things
I see the number three appearing in my message tonight. I will point
out three reactions of the disciples to the arrest of Jesus as I
preach. The text itself tells us of the three denials of Peter. And
through the sermon, I will mention three of the hardest things for a
Christian to do. Then I will conclude with three thoughts. All of
these will not be outline points so you will have to watch for them.
Notice that we move from the Olivet garden to the high priest’s
house, from sleeping to fleeing disciples, and our Lord will go from
being in prayer to being in prison.
I. Let’s follow the time line, by noticing the reactions to the
arrest of Jesus.
A. \\#47-48\\ A disciple betrays Jesus.
1. There is no question who that disciple was, Judas.
2. Judas created the symbol of betrayal, he kissed Jesus to
mark Him as the One to be arrested.
3. Why not just point Jesus out?
a. Judas knew that Jesus knew. That is why Judas
fled the Last Supper.
b. The disciples were going to know. When you are
leading the squad of soldiers and they
immediately move in to cease the Man you marked,
what could be gained by the subtle sign?
c. My only thought is that the devil that was in
Judas picked this sign to mark our Lord. It was
the devil’s way of either hurting or insulting
or Lord or both!
(1) We know that Jesus came to love and forgive
the sinner. As hard as it may be for us to
comprehend it, that included Judas.
(2) It would not surprise me if during that very
kiss, Satan released Judas.
(a) We know that Satan took control of Judas to
some extent.
Luke 22:3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed
Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
(b) We know that Judas will come to regret
what he did. \\#Matt 27:3-4\\
(c) We know that Satan loves to hurt people and
to grieve God.
(d) What better time to release him? At
that moment, Judas had done all the
damage he could do and there was not
one thing he could do to undo it.
B. \\#49-51\\ A disciple defends Jesus.
1. It is interesting that Luke does not mention any names
here.
2. John tells us both the name of the disciples and the name
of his victim.
John 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew
it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut
off his right ear. The servant’s name was
Malchus.
a. We do not know why Luke did not at least mention that
the disciple was Peter.
b. He will mentioned Peter by name in \\#54-62\\ so it
is not that Luke or the Holy Ghost wanted to spare
Peter.
c. Maybe it was just to give us several distinct
reactions to Jesus’ arrest which is exactly what we
are looking at right now.
3. This reaction goes back to Jesus’ earlier statement of the
sword.
a. The disciples had already found two swords and had
even brought them to the upper room \\#Luke 22:38\\.
b. That suggested that they anticipated trouble.
c. Question:
(1) What are two swords among a squad of soldiers?
(2) The only answer is, "We will go down fighting."
d. That was not and is not Christ’s plan!
Luke 22:51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer
ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed
him.
(1) Jesus demands for the hardest things.
(2) Here are the first two most difficult demands of
our Lord.
(a) To live sacrificial life.
i. God first, others second, ourselves
last.
ii. This is the demand Jesus made and
repeated.
Lu 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple.
iii. We may not obey it, but let us not
pretend Jesus does not demand it.
(b) To die sacrificial death.
i. Just like Jesus, a Lamb to the
slaughter.
ii. We must get this nailed down: Jesus
does not want us to go out fighting.
iii. He wants us to go out demonstrating the
love of Jesus Christ.
(c) I will mentioned the third one on a few
moments.
(3) Jesus demonstrated His plan by stopping the
fighting in short order and healing Marcus’ ear.
(a) The only way to have stopped the fight at
that point was to step in the middle.
i. The soldiers came expecting and
probably even wanting a fight.
ii. Once it is begun, it would be very
difficult to stop.
(b) Isn’t it interesting that this was the last
miracle performed by Jesus? To heal the
pain and suffering of an enemy soldier?
(c) But are not we all?
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life.
(d) You and I will never be more like Jesus than
when we lay down our lives for an enemy.
C. \\54-62\\ A disciple denies Jesus.
1. As I already pointed out, both of these actions or
reactions were Peter’s.
2. Peter first defended Jesus then denied Jesus.
3. The Bible describes what happened to Peter in pieces:
a. He went to the Last Supper with at least one sword.
b. He fell asleep while Jesus was praying.
c. He awoke to a mob coming for Jesus.
d. \\#Luke 22:49\\ Someone, probably Peter, asked for
permission to pull a sword.
Luke 22:49 …Lord, shall we smite with the
sword?
(1) It was probably a rhetorical question.
(2) Things were probably happening too fast to wait
for answer.
(3) Peter thought he was doing the right thing, but
Jesus stopped him.
e. Jesus stopped Peter.
(1) I suspect that took the winds out of everyone’s
sails.
(2) It is one thing to die for Jesus in the heat
of battle. It is another to die a slow death on
the cross.
(3) Jesus’ actions left the disciples confused and
scared.
f. Peter and all the rest of the disciples fled. (This
is our old "fight or flee" instinct.)
g. At some point, Peter decided to go "see" what was
happening.
(1) That in itself was pretty courageous.
(2) Because there was a wall of some kind, John had
to "get" Peter inside \\#John 18:15-16\\.
h. Once at the High Priest’s house (mansion with a wall
and huge court), Peter got cold so he went and sat
by the fire with the High Priest’s soldiers
\\#Luke 22:55\\.
i. \\#Luke 22:56-59\\ While by that fire, Peter will deny
the Lord three times. All within the space of a
little over an hour.
4. Question: How can people move so far from Jesus so
quickly?
a. Peter was willing to die for Jesus and then he denied
Him three times. That is a far distance to go.
b. Many reasons.
(1) I really believe it was the difference in dying
quick with a sword in his hand or not. To
surrender for crucifixion would be HARD!
(2) But it also points out our fickled human nature.
(a) People can be loving one minute, vicious
the next.
(b) Helpful one minute, uncaring the next.
(c) Even Christians can be spiritual one minuet
and carnal the next.
(d) Someone needs to be make a sign, "The flesh
is NOT reliable!"
5. So what is the third hardest thing for a Christian to do?
a. The third hardest thing is to do nothing physically.
b. Peter did not mind defending and he did not mind
fleeing.
c. If necessary, he would even deny the Lord, but in
this situation, what would the Lord really have
wanted His disciples to do?
(1) The best I can tell, pretty much nothing.
(2) Maybe they could have offered verbal protests,
but it is obvious that Jesus did not want them
to fight or to deny Him.
d. As difficult as it is, sometimes the only actions God
wants us to take is to pray and to trust Him.
II. Three reactions, three difficult things, and three denials.
Let’s close with three conclusions.
A. God’s plans are too high for us.
1. Who would have ever guessed that God’s plan was for Jesus
to die such a death?
a. To be taken by hypocrites?
b. To surrender to the cross?
c. To die for sinners?
2. Even with the Scriptures at their disposal—which the
disciples only had on a limited basis—it would have been
difficult to comprehend. Without them, it was just too
far to go to comprehend.
3. Lesson - God’s plans are usually always too far from us to
comprehend.
a. We must learn to pray.
b. We must learn to trust.
c. We must learn to wait.
d. We must learn to discern.
e. We must learn to let go and let God.
B. God’s plans are too hard for us.
1. It is for those very reasons that God’s plan is hard.
2. Life for you and I is a training camp.
a. God takes us from one difficult task to the next.
b. Most of the time it seems like it is from a difficult
task to a more difficult task, but I guess that is
only because we don’t notice the easier ones as much.
c. The only way to win in this life is to learn and obey.
(1) Nothing is going to stop the hard times from
coming.
(2) They are all leading us to a larger final battle,
probably with death.
(3) Death is the final battle where we can only pray,
trust, wait, discern, and let go.
C. God’s plans are too good for us.
1. I suppose one of the reasons so many people want to work
their way to heaven is that they cannot comprehend that
God would be so good to them.
2. How could anyone fathom that Jesus Christ would pay the
whole debt?
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
