Published: December 31, 2023 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: Gospel of Mark - Part 98 | Scripture: Mark 14:26-53
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we're in Mark chapter 14 once again and we've come to the end of um I guess what we're calling my my session here in in mark for a time and I would like to read a fairly lengthy
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portion of Mark 14 to uh set what I think is is the scene and you'll you'll see it's the Garden of Gethsemane but to understand I I
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believe what Jesus is saying to us in verse 27 in Mark 14 I think you need to read down through uh the beginning of
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verse 53 so if you would please indulge me uh in the reading of God's word Mark 14 beginning at verse
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26 and after singing A Hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives and Jesus said to them you will all fall away because it is written I will strike down
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the shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered but after I have been raised I will go before you to Galilee but Peter said to him even though all may fall
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away yet I will not and Jesus said to him truly I say to you that you yourself this very night before a crows
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twice shall three times deny me but Peter kept saying insistently even if I have to die with you I will not deny you and they were all saying the same thing
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too and they came to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples sit here until I have prayed and he took with him Peter and James and John and
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began began to be very distressed and troubled and he said to them my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death remain here and keep watch and he went a little Beyond them and fell to the
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ground and began to pray that if it were possible the hour might pass him by and he was saying ABA father all things are possible for thee remove this cup from
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me yet not what I will but thou what thou Wilt and he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter Simon are you asleep could you not keep watch for one
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hour keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and again he went away and prayed saying the
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same words and again he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy and they did not know what to answer him and he came the third time and said to themare you still sleeping and taking
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your rest it is enough the hour has come behold the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of Sinners arise let us be going behold
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the one who betrays me is at hand and immediately while he was still speaking Judas one of the 12 came up accompanied by a multitude with swords and clubs
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from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders now he was betraying him had who was betraying him had given them a signal saying whom ever I shall kiss
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he is the one seize him and lead him away under guard and after coming he immediately went to him saying Rabbi and kissed him and they laid hands on him
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and seized him but a certain one of those who stood by Drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear and Jesus answered and said to them have you come out with
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swords and clubs to arrest me as against a robber every day I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me but this has happened that the
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scriptures might be fulfilled and they all left him and fled and a certain young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body and They
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seized him but he left the Sheep behind and escaped naked and they LED Jesus away to the high priest let us
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pray our father again we we do ask that by your Holy Spirit you might speak to our our hearts and Minds we might be meditating on these things this night in
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which Jesus was betrayed and that we might remember these things might understand them and might come to appreciate what Jesus is doing here and
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we ask again that you would build us up in the faith and help us to understand in Christ's name we pray
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amen we have in mark seven or eight incidents that happen as Jesus departs from the upper room with his disciples and in Mark he he doesn't spend a lot of
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time on each one and it it it goes in Rapid succession some of you will see in your Bibles the translators have have put a little asteris there uh again
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that's that's marks uh what I I call kind of the Cinematic approach to the writing instead of just Jesus said Jesus is saying Jesus is coming the disciples are
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in motion here and there's a great deal of tension here in what probably is a very quiet uh garden and a lovely place
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where where I believe that Jesus had spent time with his disciples even possibly camping out there in previous times sleeping at night with
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them and they're leaving Jerusalem and climbing up the Mount of Olives but not to spend the night but this is the night of his
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of his betrayal and Jesus tells them all kind kind of suddenly as they've come from the the the meal and they're climbing the Mount of Olives overlooking uh the
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city and he he suddenly turns to them and says you will All Fall Away not one will remain having not
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Fallen away you will all fall away and and Peter goes into his protests as they began to enter The Garden of Gethsemane and he goes there to pray but I believe
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he also goes there in observance of his disciples watching them and observing them during his hours of Agony as he comes back to
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see how they're doing and find them asleep and the hour comes and Judas arrives with with a multitude with swords and
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swords and clubs and someone lops off the high chief uh the chief priest's servants ear during this but
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but Jesus looks at them and and says you had an opportunity to do all this when I was in the temple or when I was walking through Jerusalem and you
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did not but this has happened that the scripture might be fulfilled and we see what Jesus has told them in verse
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27 I will strike down the shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered and in verse 50 what do we see and they all left him him and
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arresting mob to be tried I believe what we we see in this entire uh section here in the Garden of Gethsemane that this is not a day in
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which God has failed this is a day in which the will of God triumphs Jesus is in perfect harmony here with God's will for his life and
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for his for his people the key scripture I believe is still verse 27 when Jesus quotes from scripture he quotes from Zechariah 13
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and you don't need to turn there but I want you to listen carefully because I believe there are three things that we see in here that are reflected in this entire passage that we've just read from
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God is speaking through the prophet Zechariah he says awake o sword against my shepherd and against the man my associate declares the Lord of hosts
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strike the Shepherd that the Sheep may be scattered and I will turn my hand upon the little ones and it will come about in all the land declares the Lord
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that two parts in it will be cut off and perish but the third part will be left in it and I will bring the third part through the fire refine them as silver
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is refined and test them as gold as tested they will call on my name and I will answer them I will say they are my people and they will say the Lord is my
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God God is is dealing in Zechariah 13 with the false prophets but the entire book of Zachariah appears to be
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judgments upon Israel to purge them yes but also to transform them into a holy people of God and that's the the message
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that I think we we get summed up in in Chapter 13 of Zechariah and then chapter 14 is really the the consummation of all that but but we see
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here the the tension God speaking and it it's kind of foreign to to our ears and our our minds when when God himself says strike the shepherd
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strike the man I call my associate and yet Jesus quote here is in perfect harmony with that he takes this
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passage in Zachariah which is meant for the Jews the people that God has separated for himself and he now applies it and says this was telling about me
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this is telling what will happen this very night and it comes after he has told them you will all with with no exceptions you will all fall away some
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of your virgins say you will be offended and I I don't think that's a very good translation it's not as if they are displeased or they're somehow alienated from Jesus being
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offended but they will be made to stumble the the word is the word that you see in other parts of scripture it it's the scandalon it it's that trap
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where the stick is on the bait and when the animal pulls the bait the Trap Falls over him that's what he's saying you will be trapped you will fall away your
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your faith will be staggered and I like what it says in in Matthew in this passage it says your faith will be staggered or you will fall away in
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away in me not because of what Jesus is but because of what is happening to him in him they they will be staggered they will fall
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away their faith will be severely tested and so I think in Zachariah we see three things we see the Striking of
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the shepherd and we see the scattering of the sheep but but there's Mercy at the end the hand of the Lord will turn upon the little ones Zachariah says and
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I think all three of those things are here in the garden God of course again is dealing with the false prophets in Zechariah 13
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and it says those prophets were wounded at home meaning they were wounded by their own Nation their own people and and God turns his attention now to the
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true Prophet the he's also being roughly treated by his own it says in Zechariah 12 they will
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look on him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him like one mourning for an only son they they do the activity but later they will
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see look what we have done and here God is acting is the one who's doing the
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acting he he says awake oh sword against my shepherd He he's he's talking to a sword as if it's a person and giving it
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that personality and saying strike the shepherd my shepherd He calls him against the man my associate declares the Lord of hosts
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again it's foreign to us to hear God saying that strike my shepherd the the man who is my
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fellow and it is indeed the hand of God that is acting calling this sword to strike the shepherd one of the commentaries says this the envy and hatred of Satan the Blind Fury of the
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chief priest the cont contempt of Herod the guilty cowardice of Pilate freely accomplish that death which God had before decreed for the Salvation of the
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world we read in that passage that Chuck mentioned this morning in Sunday school Isaiah 53 and and again I can remember the first time reading that as a Believer and going is this
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real but the Lord was pleased to crush him putting him to grief he Crush crushed him for
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our transgressions he he had him slain for our for our iniquities the scripture says and this would have been as one of
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the commentators say quote the most inexplicable thing in God's moral government of the universe unless we knew that Jesus was fully in
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the will of God Jesus willingly went to the cross as the Lamb of God a as that Shepherd as God's associate as his fellow we we have
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this unique relationship between God and shepherd and again the the word in Hebrew means my fellow or it could be
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translated my nearest one it it's not as in Ezekiel and and we read in John 10 that this Shepherd was a hirling that that he was somebody that
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that they just hired to keep the the Sheep you read in Ezekiel 34 about those those Shepherds that that God is saying you you worthless men you you you feed
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yourself and not the flock and you lead them to putrid water and tell them to drink and you you're not binding up their hurts and their wounds and their
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injuries you you're just in it for yourself and what does Jesus say in John 10 when Trouble Comes upon the sheep of the flock what does the hireling do he
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leaves he runs away and yet here is my shepherd my fellow my nearest one he's not a Hired
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Hand he he's not a foolish Shepherd and and no owner of a flock would ever call his hired Shepherd my
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fellow there's a unique relationship here that we see and what does Jesus say in John 10 I am the Good
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Shepherd and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and at the end of that passage what does he say I and the father are
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one this is God's fellow this is his associate this is his nearest one and Jesus is walking the path again
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other men can come up with phrases that I can't come up with this mysterious pain that Jesus is about to
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endure is not in conflict with his father but in fellowship with God the father in order to bring about the
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purpose of God to show love and compassion and mercy on on men the shepherd would be struck but he's being struck in full
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communion and cooperation with God the he's a victim not of the cruelty of of these Jewish and Roman
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men but of The Stroke Of God upon his soul and what does Jesus say knowing that he's about to endure this yet not
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my will but thy will be done but the disciples by disciples by contrast they're
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contrast they're retreating they're retreating they're protesting they're protesting they're fleeing and not walking by faith another part of Jesus message here
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is he says but after I have been raised I will go before you together Galilee it was meant to cheer them up they will strike the shepherd and the
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Sheep will be scattered and this was meant to say to them yes these things will happen but the dispersion will be
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temporary you you will see me crucified and you will experience what it will be like to be a flock of sheep that has no Shepherd and there's going to be
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Calamity and and and sheep are going to scatter and there will be a time of of testing but I will go before you to Galilee there will be a time when you'll
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see me see me again the the Jewish nation was called in Zachariah in chapter 11 they were called the Sheep of Slaughter these things are
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God's design God's design here and yes the Jewish nation was was partially purged in ad70 by the Romans
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and and yet we see it here in kind of a microcosm uh in that night in Gethsemane I I think there is a a reality that we can say that at this moment at this time
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that Jesus is speaking the shepherd is
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struck but Peter ever the spokesman every the one to come forward with his opinions says not I it's as if he never even
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heard Jesus it's as if he's never even heard that Jesus has repeated every time in Mark where up to this point Jesus has told them beginning to prepare them for
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this night every time he is mentioned that he's going to be arrested he's going to be betrayed he always always adds and on the third day I will rise
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again and as if Peter is not listening to any of this he's he didn't hear Jesus say but after I have been raised I will go before you to
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Galilee but I believe that Peter is sincere he he's sincere in what he thinks about thinks about himself and his
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devotion but he makes a fool of himself he has a false security if you could think of words that follow self
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Dash here's Peter self-sufficiency self self-sufficiency self deception selfconfidence
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self-reliance I I mean here's here's Peter with his Lord Jesus and he directly conflicts what Jesus said you will all fall away
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what does Peter say not I and in the translation I have in The New American Standard in verse 29 it
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says even though all may fall away it's actually if also he he's not just contradicting Jesus he's putting down his fellow
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his fellow disciples and they're probably he's saying if saying if also they don't count what whatever they want to do they can do it's no matter
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it's it's me and I don't know if they're standing off the side going um uh Peter uh we're we're here but but Peter goes further he says all men if also all men
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fall away not I his mindset is I I'm indifferent to others it it matters not what they
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do and I don't know if he's expecting an amen not I well he gets an amen doesn't he but not from the people he thought he would get it from he gets it from Jesus
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and Jesus said to him truly I say to you that's the Greek word amen he gets it from Jesus from Jesus amen he's being singled out by Jesus in
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the garden at this night of betrayal truly I say to you Jesus says I I mean it's staggering the
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tension that I I think is in that Garden at this moment he says today this very night before the Third Watch between the second cockro and the
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third that that watch of the night you will deny me three times Peter you will deny me you will
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deliberately disown me tonight you will deliberately disavow any knowledge of me this [Music] night Jesus is very specific and pointed
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here is he not today this night before the crows but it's not just to tell us how quickly it will happen to Peter how
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quickly he will disown Jesus
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seed Peter is still not listening he keeps saying insistently over and over he keeps saying and it's very graphic even if I have to die with
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you I will not deny you and Jesus doesn't respond he says no more to Peter at that point because again he has a purpose he
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has a plan and he has planted that seed in Peter which we will see I think in the third part of what Jesus has picked
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up from Zechariah 13 but we know that at this moment when the betrayer has come and the multitude is there and they've arrested Jesus what
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happens they all left him and fled strike the shepherd He says and the Sheep will
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scatter but there's more there's the Striking of the sheep and there's the scat of the shepherd the Striking of the sheep but there's mercy and it's in Zechariah 13 and it's here
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in the garden in what Jesus says Jesus tells them but after I have been raised I will go before you to Galilee
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he doesn't quote continuing in Zechariah 13 but to me he's he's showing it he's he's
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actually portraying it illustrating it in real life let me read again from Zechariah 13 after he says strike the shepherd and the Sheep will scatter he
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says and I will turn this is the Lord God God I will turn my hand upon the little ones now some of your versions say I will turn my hand against them in
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the scriptures this turning of the hand and placing of the hand can be a against it can be a punishment but I believe here it is as God says I will
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discipline those of my people I will discipline the son in whom I Delight he says I will turn my hand upon the little ones it's for good he will turn his hand upon
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them for salvation for that transformation that is about to come he's Zechariah is speaking of a remnant of the people the little ones I I think
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it's a very pointed thing the humble the patient the poor of my flock and he says I will bring that third part through the fire I will
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refine them as silver as refined and test them as gold as tested it's it's going to hurt it's going to be a testing it's going to be a period where you will
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understand what it means to be a flock of sheep without a Shepherd but he's going to test them and he's going to refine them for God's
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glory and Jesus doesn't quote this part but I think he's implying it when he says I will go before you into Galilee he he's Illuminating the darkness of the
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cross to which he's approaching because he is the light of the world he is a light John says of him a
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light shining in that Darkness yes it will be difficult I will chastise the Nations and it will be ruined to some
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but I will come again Jesus says I will go before you that's a passage asoral act that's the shepherd speaking I will go before
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go before you and I it's perfect when he says I will go before you to Galilee where did Peter and James and John and Andrew and all the
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rest where did they live where did they grow up in Galilee where did Jesus come to them as they're they're mending the Nets or as Matthew is sitting in his tax
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box in Galilee he comes to them and says follow me and I will make you fishes of men he's going before them as
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the good great Shepherd here's the mercy I will turn my hand upon the little ones but you little ones you men I have
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appointed you I chose you that you should go and be bear fruit and he will not let anything snatch them out of his
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hands the Good Shepherd leading his flock in Galilee where they they first came to know him and hear his voice and follow him Peter acted arrogantly he acted
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rashly he had Zeal without knowledge even of his own capabilities and in the garden he falls asleep he can't stay awake for a couple
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of hours to pray with Jesus the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Jesus says and and he is one that did exactly what Jesus said
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would happen strike the shepherd and the Sheep will Sheep will scatter Peter is one of those who fled from the
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garden but again Jesus had a plan the specifics that he told him this day this very night when the cck
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crows what do we read I'm sorry but this is this is the Salvation of the
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Lord this is 22 Peter is standing with the others around
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the fire warming himself Jesus is being led and one in the crowd says certainly this man was also with him for he too is
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a galileon but Peter said man I do not know what you are talking about and immediately while he was still speaking a rooster crowed and then the Lord
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turned and looked at Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord how he had told him before a rooster crows today you will deny me
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three times and he went out and wept bitterly and I agree with one of the commentators if we were just reading the
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words of Mark at this point where Peter is one of those who fled and then later when he's denying Jesus three times if we did not
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know about Peter's restoration if we did not know the books that Peter later wrote if we did not
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know that Peter would be one of those men who stood strong and probably did face martyrdom in martyrdom in Jesus because of his love and obedience
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and faith and trust in his Lord we would probably close the book at that point but we do
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know and the Holy Spirit knows that we will not be left frightened by this passage we know the words of the Lord Jesus here to his
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disciples and I truly believe that he spent some time just watching them sleep in the garden I may be wrong but when he says the p Mage it is
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enough I think he knows the men and he knows their weakness he knows what humans are like and this brings In this passage the fact that that Jesus is the
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god man he had to be divine to redeem us from our sins but he also had to be man to understand who we are and what we are
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like and here we see him together God's fellow his associate his Shepherd and he says to us as he said to them watch and pray present dangers may come
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they they may wash away like they did with with with Peter they they will wash away your Brave promises I will not deny you and we don't know how we're going to
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respond in those circumstances as our brother prayed in other countries where they cannot freely gather that may come upon us someday and we don't
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know but we know how to walk watch and pray we have weaknesses we have wickedness in our heart and we pray for humility we pray for trust in him but we
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see here in the passage of the Striking of the shepherd and the scattering of the sheep there is that Mercy as one again has said it better
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than I can it's Mercy blended with judgment Mercy to know him in all his Perfections Mercy to be called the
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people of God in the grace that we someday we will hear God saying they are my people and how will
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we we we we respond you are the Lord Our God let us
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pray Our Father these things are are wonderful but they're high and they're amazing to us and we thank you that you've given us
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the scriptures that we we might read them that we might meditate upon them what we we might do again as our brother said that we might inquire of the scriptures how can these things be so
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and are they true we pray that you would grow us and teach us and help us to walk in a manner that thoroughly pleases you not because
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we trust in ourselves but because we trust you that we say to you thy will be done in Christ's name we pray amen you please rise for the
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benediction from the words of Peter himself blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the
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resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are
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protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed at the last time