Sermon Tone Analysis
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There was a clip on the sports last night that was painful to watch.
College basketball between Memphis and Louisville, championship game—the star freshman for Memphis was fouled with no time left, his team behind by two—75 to 73.
And he gets three free throws because he was fouled on a three-point shot attempt.
Hits the first, 75-74.
Misses the second.
Thunk, misses the third.
And the young fellow crumbled.
They had to help him off the floor.
I realized I was wincing.
Watching a failure is painful.
This morning you have heard the stories of three failures—Peter, Judas, and Pilate.
And they are painful to hear.
The consequences were staggering.
What's more, none of them would have failed had it not been for Jesus.
In fact, you might say that there's a sense in which Jesus brings out the worst in people.
Jesus is good and gracious, holy and mighty, but he is surely not safe to have around!
Each of these stories represents a different kind of failure, and every person here is prone to one of these scenarios.
We are all descendants of one of these men.
So in order to avoid their devastating failures, let us pay close attention to the warnings of Scripture.
*The devoted disciple fails by not preparing for weakness.*
Turn to Matthew 26:69.
Let's begin with Peter there in the courtyard, condemned by simply saying, "I don't know the man!" in oath-laced triplicate.
Of these three failure stories, Peter's is the failure of a devoted disciple.
Years ago, I heard someone describe how steel tubes were made in the mills of western Pennsylvania.
A snake of molten steel is poured out and then spun, until by centrifugal force that steel opens from the inside out, forming a perfect, seamless tube.
When asked the secret of the process the operator replied, "It's the temperature of the metal.
If it is too hot, it will fly apart; if it is too cold, it will not open as it ought.
Unless you catch the molten moment, you cannot make the perfect tube."
That phrase, "the molten moment," has stuck with me ever since.
Each of these three men faced a molten moment where success and failure hung in the balance.
We also have our molten moments.
Peter's had been in the garden when Jesus told him, "Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation."
But Peter, so sure of his devotion, felt he was prepared for any temptation to deny Christ, so he fell asleep.
The molten moment for every devoted disciple of Jesus is when Jesus tells us to attend to the weaknesses of our heart through fervent, unblinkingly honest prayer.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we know so little of soul-searching prayer.
We are so careless of the times the Lord gives us to look squarely at our hearts' secrets in the mirror of Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Peter failed because when the test of his devotion came, it was not what he was expecting.
Peter thought some authority—a chief priest or Roman soldier—would demand he die for Jesus, so he never saw it coming when a servant girl simply said, "You were with Jesus."
It was a nuisance question, really, but at that moment, with Jesus gone and everyone looking at him, Peter suddenly realized how bad he would look, how embarrassed he'd feel if he told the truth.
It wasn't fear that snared Peter; it was pride.
Devoted disciples rarely see the attack that fells them.
We think we know what to expect and we're think we're ready, but since we did not join the Lord in prayer, we have set no sentinel to guard our soul's most vulnerable place, and there the Enemy strikes.
So here's the point:
When we fall to temptation there's no avoiding the bitter aftertaste.
First, God will lay bare our failure.
"Immediately a rooster crowed.
Then Peter remembered."
The rooster always crows.
You know the feeling, don't you, when the rooster crows?
When you realize that you were ambushed by sin and have failed Christ miserably?
And what will failure like that do to the devoted disciple?
Such failure will break our hearts.
"And he went outside and wept bitterly" (v.
75).
Haven't you sat there, with your head in your hands, heavyhearted over what you've done, ashamed, defeated, helpless?
There is a good news side of this failure story because Jesus will not give up on disciples who fail him.
Of course, as with Peter, Jesus knew all along what we were made of; how fickle and sinful our hearts.
We were the ones who had to be shown.
After he faced his failure, Peter was forgiven and restored, and then he was useful to the Master.
Someone has said, "There is no failure so great that a Christian cannot rise from it."
Christians do not rise from failures like Peter's by determination, but by receiving the mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now Judas.
It would be more accurate to describe Judas as a follower of Jesus than a disciple; he was never a devoted disciple.
*The disillusioned follower fails by demanding of Jesus what Jesus will not do.*
What was Judas's problem with Jesus?
Did he hate Jesus?
Did he think Jesus a fool, or a fraud?
No, none of those.
Here in 27:1–10 we have the end of Judas's story, where he tries to take back what he has done.
Look at verse 3:"When he saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse."
It seems he was surprised that Jesus was condemned.
What did he think would happen when he betrayed Jesus?
Judas wanted a Messiah who would deliver people from trouble.
As one of my friends said, he wanted Jesus to step into a phone booth, rip open his robe, and come out with a big Superman S on his chest.
Many think that by betraying Jesus into the hands of the authorities, Judas thought he was simply forcing Jesus into Superman's phone booth.
He was trying to get Jesus to be the kind of Messiah he wanted.
Do you remember Judas's molten moment?
It was back in Matthew 26:6–14 when Mary anointed Jesus.
Look what Jesus said in verse 12: "She did it to prepare me for burial."
And what's the very next thing that happens in verse 14–15?
"Judas went to the chief priests."
Judas was simply not interested in a Messiah who would die.
He had no place for a Messiah whose main agenda was to save people from sin.
He wanted a Messiah who would defeat enemies, make people rich and healthy, and solve everyone's problems.
Judas represents the failure of the disillusioned follower.
There are lots of people who believe in Jesus just as Judas did.
They believe in a Jesus who will fix messes and solve problems for them.
And when he doesn't come through, they get angry.
I recall a young woman who came here a few times years ago.
She said she wanted to be a Christian, but she had some very clear demands of Jesus, and he didn't come through for her.
First she walked away from Jesus, and then—sadly—when life crashed in on her, she committed suicide.
There is a point of no return for disillusioned followers.
In verses 1–10, we read of Judas' tragic effort to undo what he had done.
It isn't hard to see why some people, reading what Judas did, conclude that he repented and eventually was forgiven by God.
In verse 3 itsays, "He was seized with remorse."
Verse foursays he confessed: "I have sinned for I have betrayed innocent blood."
Verse 5 says he returned the money.
What more could he do?
Judas got it half right—he saw and confessed his sin sincerely, but he found no forgiveness or peace, as evidenced by the fact that "he went away and hanged himself" (v.
5).
You see, he needed Jesus to do for him what he had never wanted Jesus to do before—forgive sin.
Judas, by his doubt and anger and sin, had cauterized his own heart so that there was no capacity for faith in Christ left.
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