NOVEMBER 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 NOVEMBER 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, I come today with a broken spirit for the thought that I entertained yesterday! I realized that I was grieving the Holy Spirit with that thought I let form in my mind for the Holy Spirit convicted me and I immediately begged for forgiveness. I have again grieved the Holy Spirit for I have not trusted in the Promise that if I will repent that God is Faithful and will forgive and it is my lack of faith again entering into my thoughts that separate me from fellowship with God. I know how my spirit has been depressed since I knew I was having an unclean thought because I can feel that separation and it hurts me deep in my soul — Lord, again I pray for a “clean heart” and a “renewed spirit” for I desire Your fellowship and beg for forgiveness of letting my spirit drift away — and I know it is my fault because You have promised to “never leave nor forsake me” — Praise God!!!  AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has announced His Death, Burial, and Resurrection and has eaten the Passover with His disciples and demonstrated with the bread and the wine that His body will be broken and His blood will be required of Him as part of the “new covenant” and Jesus stated clearly the Divine Purpose was “for the remission of sin” (Matthew 25:31-26:32). Jesus has up to this point been explaining and showing by example what His Divine Responsibility is in God’s Plan of Salvation and starting with Matthew 26 verse 33 Jesus will Teach us another Truth of God about ourselves as Jesus responds to Peter’s promise that he would “never be made to stumble” (Matthew 26:33) Peter was the first to declare that Jesus was Christ the Son of the Living God, Peter has walked on water, Peter was present at the Transfiguration and saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah, and when many disciples of Jesus was leaving and going back to the world and when Jesus asked the twelve if they too were going to leave, it was Peter who said there was nowhere else to go because only Jesus had the “words of eternal life!” All these scriptural credentials should be sufficient for us to have confidence that Peter would indeed never “stumble” so it at first shocked me when Jesus replied to Peter, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” (Matthew 26:34) Matthew then records: “Peter said to Him, ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples.” (Matthew 26:35) Jesus is leading up to His next Teaching Question which in light of the context of the Passover, the Betrayal, and the Imminent Suffering at the hands of those Jesus came to Save. When Jesus announces that even Peter will “deny” Him then asks His next Question after His Last Passover Supper as He and His disciples enter Gethsemane, we should know that Jesus is personally calling each individual to look at our lives which we claim to be living for Him and answer His very personal Question:  “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40) We should understand that Peter was not being attacked by Jesus nor was Peter possessed by an evil thought from Satan like we ascribe to Judas who betrayed Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver. Peter knew Jesus was the Son of the Living God and Peter believed in his heart that he would not stumble so why does Jesus call Peter out personally? Here is a Truth of God  the world does not want us to hear but Jesus Teaches in a dramatic fashion; but, we have to see Peter through the eyes of a Gracious and Merciful God and not a callous and condemning world view because Jesus is using Peter to say that all the world’s (and Peter’s) righteousness is but “filthy rags” and “all sin and fall short of the Glory of God”!    Even so,  Jesus is Teaching that there is “nothing to hard for God” and God will prove Himself ———“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)  The Lesson Jesus is Teaching “all” then is that there is no sin that we can commit that if we confess it to God that God has Promised “all” that He will be Faithful to “forgive us our sins” and “cleanse us from all unrighteousness” and as part of the context surrounding Jesus is telling Peter {paraphrased} “Yes Peter, even you will deny me, and not just once but three times but remember that I have come to be the Passover Lamb and My death on the cross is for the remission of sin, all sin, including this night when you will deny Me even after promising Me your loyalty — I will forgive you when you confess your love for Me AFTER I am RESURRECTED!” Jesus has invested His earthly life entirely in Teaching about the Father and the Power and Glory of God and how God Promises to use that Power and Glory to rectify the problem of sin in our individual lives! The Lesson is simple: “We will sin, but God will forgive if we but repent and confess!”