Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

There are times in our lives in which we can shock ourselves by our own capacity to do wrong.

There have been too many occasions to count over the course of my ministry in which someone has sat across my desk and started a sentence with, “I can’t believe what I’ve done.”

Many of the men who have had affairs would have never believed themselves capable just a short time before.

Many of the women who have betrayed a friend by the things they’ve said or done couldn’t have been convinced they would have done it just a short time before.

Truthfully, I don’t have to reference people who have sat across from me to know that it’s possible.

I can just look in the mirror.

There have been times in which I’ve said something or done something, and when I look back, I am horrified by the wickedness in my heart.

My own capacity for hypocrisy is terrifying to me.

This morning, we’re going listen in as Jesus predicts such a failure in the lives of his disciples with the leader, Peter, being front and center of them all.

Jesus is going to explain to them that they are going to do something that is, in the moment, unthinkable to them, and yet every, single one of them will follow suit in a matter of hours.

God’s Word

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Jesus Sang

“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” It’s Thursday evening, the night of the final Passover meal that Jesus will enjoy with his disciples.

In the midst of the typical Passover celebration, Jesus pre-explains to his disciples what the next days will hold, and He assigns new meaning to the powerful symbolism by instituting the Lord’s Supper, a time set aside for his disciples to remember him and to recommit themselves to him.

On the night of the Passover, Israel would sing .

They would sing after the second cup of the Passover, and then they would sing after the fourth and final cup.

These are called the Hallel psalms.

They're called this because the Hebrew word 'Hallel' means praise, and for them, there was nothing more praiseworthy that God had ever done than to deliver them from the hand of Egypt.

But, think of what this would have meant to Jesus.

On the night He was to be betrayed, He praised God.

On the night He prayed in agony as his disciples slept, He praised God.

On the eve of his scourging, Jesus praised God.

On the eve of his crucifixion, He praised God.

As Jesus looked forward to the impending atrocity, He looked up to his Father in heaven and back to his Father's past faithfulness.

How could He and his disciples know that God would use him to deliver his people?

How could He and his disciples know that his death was for victory and not defeat?

They could be certain because God's faithfulness and God's goodness was proven.

So, He praised God.

The death of God's Son, the Lamb of God offered for the world, would not be in vain any more than the death of those slaughtered lambs all those years ago at the original Passover.

It’s no small lesson to the men of the 21st century to see that Jesus sang.

Singing isn’t effeminate.

Singing is boldly and courageously declaring in the presence of God, your family, and others that the God of heaven is praiseworthy regardless of how difficult life is right now.

And, it was certainly difficult for Jesus.

Just think of what this would have looked like.

The night before He was to be crucified, just part of what Jesus sang was, "5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.

6  The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me? 7  The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

8  It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

9  It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

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the Lord answered me and set me free.

6  The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

God Isn’t Less Sovereign When Life is More Difficult

What can man do to me? 7  The Lord is on my side as my helper;

APPLICATION: On the night of his agony, Jesus declared the sovereignty of God to his disciples by singing to them what they had heard every year of their lives.

You see, God wasn’t less sovereign just because their lives were more difficult.

One of the primary reasons that we sing is to remind ourselves and to declare to each other the truth about God.

And, there is no time that we need a reminder of God’s sovereignty more than when our lives feel as though they are spinning out of control.

And so, on the night He was to be betrayed, the night before He was to be nailed to the tree, Jesus sang of God’s sovereignty to his disciples.

Brothers and sisters, God isn’t less sovereign because your life is more difficult.

In fact, it is in life’s greatest difficulty that we can find the greatest refuge in God’s rule.

So, declare it to yourselves! Declare it to your circumstances!

Declare it to your anxious heart!

“My God is sovereign, and this will lead to my good and his glory.

My God is sovereign, and He has my life under control.”

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

8  It is better to take refuge in the Lord

‘You All Will Fall Away’

than to trust in man.

9  It is better to take refuge in the Lord

“You will all fall away...” Jesus begins walking with his disciples to a place that He has frequently retreated, the Mount of Olives, where He will spend his final few, precious moments with his heavenly Father and his earthly disciples.

And, it’s there that Jesus’ words must’ve cut his disciples like a knife.

The disciples have just discovered that there is a betrayer among them.

Jesus has told them that his blood is about to be shed because He is about to be nailed to the cross.

The disciples have to be reeling at this point.

Jesus isn't finished yet.

Not only will Jesus be betrayed and not only will Jesus be murdered on a cross, but every, single one of them will fall away.

Every, single one of them will abandon Jesus in his need.

Jesus is going to the cross so that they can be right with God, and yet, even they, the very ones who Jesus spent the last 3 years of his life with every day will abandon him.

than to trust in princes.

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The disciples have just discovered that there is a betrayer among them.

Jesus has told them that his blood is about to be shed because He is about to be nailed to the cross.

The disciples have to be reeling at this point.

“...because of me this night.”

Jesus says that all of his disciples will fall away 'because of me.' That's an interesting thought.

The very reason that Jesus says that these men fall away is because of him.

What are we supposed to understand this to mean?

Certainly, we cannot say that Jesus made them do it.

James tells us that when we do evil, none of us can say that God tempted us to do evil for God does not tempt.

Jesus is not the cause of their falling away in a direct sense of forcing them to do that which they here say they do not want to do.

Rather, Jesus is the cause of their falling away in an indirect sense.

That is, Jesus caused them to fall away because his arrest, trial, and death will appear so costly to his disciples that they will attempt to disassociate themselves from him.

Jesus isn't finished yet.

Think of it.