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!”