Love Greater Than Our Resolve

About this sermon

Biblical assurance looks to divine authority. We consider whether we have the gospel right. We consider whether we have God and Jesus right. We consider whether our professed faith bears the marks of a genuine and saving faith: Are we characterized by a pattern of obedience to God? Do we evidence God given loves and hatreds? Do we love the church? Do we desire the Word of God and do we pray? Has our relationship to the world changed? We consider all these things and more. But our ULTIMATE REST, our ULTIMATE CONFIDENCE, is found by looking away from ourselves. Our ultimate confidence is in a love that is greater than anything explained by us. God’s work in us HAS produced fruit, but all that fruit on this side of glorification, is imperfect. To put it simply, and bluntly, we still stumble in many ways (James 3:2). We still fail. Our faithfulness compared to God’s faithfulness is weak and pitiful. THE STORY OF OUR SALVATION IS THE STORY OF GOD’S LOVE. OUR CONFIDENCE IN SALVATION IS A CONFIDENCE, NOT IN OUR LOVE FOR GOD, BUT IN GOD’S LOVE FOR US. ESV 1 John 4:10 In this is love, anot that we have loved God zbut that he loved us and sent his Son to be cthe propitiation for our sins. ESV Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, ab"For your sake bwe are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than aconquerors through bhim who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that’s the story illustrated by this next scene. Christ tells His men, in advance, what is coming. And what He tells them is so disturbing to them that they cannot imagine its fulfillment. They deny it. We often focus on Peter’s denial of his coming denial. But as we are reminded today, he was not alone in scattering when the shepherd was struck. Nor was he alone in denying that he would deny Christ. ESV Mark 14:31 But ahe said emphatically, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." And they all said the same. I don’t think that these men often disagreed with their Master. I especially don’t think that they often disagreed with Him, when He prefaced what He said with the word “truly.” But on this occasion, what He predicts is something that they can’t stand to envision. WHO WANTS TO ENVISION HIS OWN DISLOYALTY? WHO WANTS TO ENVISION HIS OWN FEARFUL SCATTERING FROM THE SON OF GOD? And yet, despite the ugliness of the weakness of Christ’s disciples, it becomes the ground upon which we see the beauty of a love that is greater than our resolve. • A SUMMARY OF WHAT IS COMING (vs.27-28) They have finished in the upper room. They have finished with the last Passover and the institution of the Lord’s Supper. They have sung the final hymn, made their way out of the Eastern Gate of the city walls, are making their way to the Mount of Olives that was opposite the temple mount. And somewhere along that trek to the Garden of Gethsemane on the northern side of the Mount of Olives, Jesus had this conversation with His disciples. He tells them, in advance, what is about to take place. He gives them a summary of what this night is going to be. And what He tells them, THEY DON’T WANT TO HEAR, they do not want to believe. • A SCATTERING THAT FULFILLS THE SCRIPTURES (vs.27) Jesus tells them that they will all fall away (σκανδαλίζω). But not only does He say that they will fall away, He tells them that this will fulfill what Scripture predicted. He quotes from Zechariah 13:7. Zec 13:7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate," Declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. In the context of Zechariah 13, we find a description of what will take place in the last days, when the millennial kingdom is ushered in.

Topics

• Love & Compassion