Human pride vs. God's Sovereign Plan

God’s plan is offensive to humanity (Matt 26:31)

Explanation: The setting is the upper room and the Last Supper. Jesus has been telling the disciples of His imminent departure and of His pending sacrifice. They cannot comprehend the Cross and His death, and they are jockeying for positions of power in the approaching Kingdom. While they are arguing about who will be the greatest, their Master is washing feet in Humility as an example for them to follow.

Though Jesus has been teaching them about the spiritual nature of the Kingdom, they have not yet comprehended the necessity of His sacrificial death. As they travel towards the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus gives them another truth about God’s Eternal Plan - it is offensive to humanity! Jesus tells them that His betrayal and arrest, and the coming scourging will be offensive - it will be scandalous! The nature of the event will cause all of them to desert Jesus.

Argument: The necessity of the Savior’s death IS offensive to people. Our human nature recoils against the idea that someone has to pay our debt to satisfy the wrath of a Holy God against sin. This has always been the case, but it is even more evident in the modern age when most people do not consider themselves to be sinners.

Example: I am a good person. I am kind and giving and I am a good person. I may make mistakes sometimes, but I AM NOT a sinner. That word offends me, and I do not accept the idea that my sin is so bad that Jesus would have to die in my place.

Application: We CAN accept God’s evaluation of us rather than our own. We CAN acknowledge that we are rebel sinners and that we CANNOT save ourselves. We CAN confess our need for Jesus!

Our pride can cause us to resist God’s plan (Matthew 26:33)

Explanation: Peter does not accept God’s plan. Jesus has authority within Himself to declare truth, but He also tells the disciples that their desertion will be in accordance with prophecy. Jesus is not giving them a possibility of action, but He is telling them what will take place! He is telling them, as He had on several previous occasions, that His betrayal and death were very much included in the Plan of God.

Peter declares that he is personally above the plan of God. He states that even if the others (they were standing right next to him!) fell away, it would not be a possibility that he would ever desert Jesus, especially in His time of distress.

Argument: Pride is a very dangerous emotion. Pride in our own abilities, apart from the supply of God, is a very dangerous mindset. Even though Peter is hearing this truth from Jesus and from the Word, he is bragging about being able to stand through his own efforts!

Proverbs 16:18 KJV 1900

Pride goeth before destruction, And an haughty spirit before a fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12 KJV 1900

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Application: We are called to humility, not prideful arrogance in our abilities. Jesus was THE Master and He was washing feet. When we put our human pride away, we can embrace God’s plan. We may not (will not) understand His plan at times, but with humility we can desire to follow His plan instead of our own.

Bottom Line: He is God, we are not!

We are called to heed the warnings from God (Luke 22:31)

Explanation: Harmonizing Scripture is the process of taking all passages together that deal with the same topic in order to gain the full picture of God’s revelation. In Luke’s account of this discussion we discover that Jesus issued a warning to Peter specifically about this event. Luke records that Jesus tells Peter that satan has asked Jesus to turn Peter over to him.

NOTE: Satan did NOT have the authority to do this on his own. Peter belonged to Jesus, and Satan was not able to just take him (John 10:27-30)

Argument: Living for Jesus puts a target on you! Satan knew that Peter was going to have a prominent place in the Kingdom and he was trying to take him out.

None of us are Peter, but satan is still in the business of trying to dampen and destroy our witness of light in the world. We need to remember that satan plan is always to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10a) and that he is working to derail us from carrying out God’s plan.

At this point in his life Peter does not heed the warning that Jesus gave him. Writing years later to the persecuted Christ followers, Peter warns others about the wiles of the devil when he states:

1 Peter 5:8 KJV 1900

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Application: We have been given the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit living inside us and we have the complete revelation of God in His Word. These historical accounts are for us to learn from. We do NOT have to learn the hard way! We CAN heed the warnings to avoid pride and embrace humility.

When we persist and fall because of our pride, Jesus is faithful to restore us when we repent (Matt 26:32; Luke 22:32)

Explanation: The biblical account reveals that Peter did not listen to the warnings. Instead of humility, he chose arrogance. When Jesus predicts that not only would Peter run with the others, he would also deny that he even knew Jesus, and that his denial would be threefold!

Given this revelation, Peter doubles down and declares that he will die before he deserts or denies Jesus. Sadly, the Gospel accounts reveal that all of the disciples did run away during the betrayal event (Matt 26:56), and we also discover that Peter did in fact deny His Lord three times (Matt 26:69-75)

Argument: If this was all that was said about this, it would be very sad indeed. However, Jesus is faithful even when we are not. Even as Jesus was telling Peter that he was about to mess up in a big way, the story would not end there.

In v. 32 of our text, Jesus gives all of the disciples hope. Immediately after He informs them that they will all desert Him, he gives the promise of Hope. He declares “BUT, after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee” (Matt 26:32). He reminds them (again) that He will Resurrect and that they will still be part of His following. The words that Jesus gives to Peter as found in Luke are even more encouraging:

Luke 22:32 KJV 1900

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

What an encouragement these words must have been for Peter in the dark days following his denial of his Master. Jesus is telling Peter that he will recover - that he will repent of his actions and return to following Christ. The word converted in this text does not have the meaning of receiving Christ in the initial act of salvation. Instead, it means a turning back, a return to a previous state.

Application: Put no trust in your human frame. Do not be believe that you are capable in and of yourself to do great things for the Kingdom. Remember that Peter did make an attempt to stop the arrest of Jesus - he whipped out a sword and tried to kill one of the mob. (Peter was probably aiming to take off his head and ending up missing and wound up with only an ear!)

Stopping the arrest wasn’t God’s plan. In his pride, Peter messed up, got rebuked by Jesus, fled with the rest of the disciples, and then denied Him 3 times. In spite of his failure, Jesus offered the hope of restoration. That is the lesson for us: for those IN Christ, failure is NOT final, and our past failures do not define our usefulness for Kingdom purposes.