Luke 2:34-35
And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His mother,
Behold, this Child is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel;
And for a sign which is spoken against;
Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul;
That thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.
Luke 22:31-32
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.
Matthew 26:31
Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended in Me this night:
For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
John 17:9, 14-15
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine:
I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
Hebrews 7:25
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
I do want this word this morning to be an establishing word, a word by which we shall be strengthened in our life in the Lord. There are two sides to this word: one which may seem to be the dark side, and the other the bright side.
These passages which we have read—and there are other selections from a number of others which I could bring alongside of them—bring before us the tremendous ordeal of the cross: all that was going on in the unseen during those hours from the arrest of the Lord to His death.
I mean, in the hearts of people. With all the movement and activity and excitement, and everything else on the outside, there was a corresponding activity going on within lives.
That prophecy of Simeon to Mary was verily being fulfilled. There was the sword piercing her heart, and thoughts out of many hearts were being revealed.
The heart of Judas was revealed. The heart of Simon Peter, in the judgment hall, was being revealed. One by one, they were passing into this terrible ordeal, until they were all included: “All ye shall be offended because of Me this night.” The sheep would be scattered abroad when the Shepherd was smitten.
I have not read these other passages about Judas, and about their all forsaking Him and following afar off. It is all a revelation of the heart in the hour of the cross.
It has seemed to me, dear friends, that that was not only true on that occasion. Whenever the Lord is moving toward something new, some spiritual enlargement, something fuller of Himself in resurrection life and service, very often there is an ordeal that has to be gone through in that realm—an ordeal of the cross.
That is, those concerned pass through a time when all sorts of unsuspected things in their own hearts are dragged out into the light—ugly things which they would never have believed to be there, any more than Peter would have believed if he had been told. And he was told what he would do and what he would say in that hour.
Not one of them would have believed for a moment that they would be offended, or forsake Him and flee, or do whatever it was that they respectively did. They would not have believed it.
Peter himself very, very strongly reacted to the suggestion that he would do anything of the kind. And so it is, from time to time, as we move with God into something more, experiences like this take place.
We have a bad time. It seems the worst time that we have ever had before, when things come to light about ourselves and to ourselves which we would never have either suspected or believed had we been told.
I do not know about Judas, whether he really did know his motive, the thoughts of his heart. But if he had been told that he would have committed such a crime as to deny and betray the Lord Jesus, because he altogether failed to set a right and sufficient estimate upon Jesus, I think that was really behind it all.
Thirty pieces of silver seemed to be of greater value than the Lord—an altogether inadequate evaluation of the Lord. Surely there was something wrong with that heart. He might not have believed it if he had been told.
Peter was told what he would do, but he would not have it. He would not have it because he never suspected the secret cowardice of his own heart.
A man who can face arms upon the sea with a good deal of physical courage very often breaks down when it is a matter of spiritual courage or moral courage. Perhaps Peter was mistaking his physical courage for moral courage, and never suspected that cowardice within.
He never would have believed that a situation could arise where, with all his might, he would seek to preserve himself. Self-preservation, deep in his heart—he would not believe it. It was all being brought out into the light.
Then, as to the rest—the other ten—they all forsook Him. They would never have discerned the inward roots of unbelief. The Lord had told them again and again what was going to happen, and what would eventuate from His suffering and death.
No, no; deeply rooted was this unbelief: “This could never happen. This would never happen.” They neither believed in His death nor His resurrection, but they would not have said that they did not believe in it. There was something there, unsuspected.
Was it the strength of unsanctified ambition? The kingdom in this world, and a place in it—was that covering up so much? They could not believe in His death. Their kingdom—what if that happened?
Well, it was a tremendous night, a terrific ordeal. Really, it is a wonder that anybody survived.
Only one man did not survive. Judas did not survive, and the Lord Jesus said, “Those whom Thou hast given Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.”
Now, I am not going into the question of Judas, but let it be said here: if anybody ever should—and sometimes Christians do get into a state where they do take hold of Judas and range themselves alongside of him as absolutely hopeless, having committed the unpardonable sin—remember that Judas’s was a lifelong, calculated, coldly calculated course.
The word in Hebrews, which so many people do take up in their dark time—“It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance”—has this connected with it: “Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh.” Remember this: it is a matter of wilfulness.
And it was wilfulness with Judas. It was wilful. Well, you can decide whether you are a wilful, deliberate, calculating betrayer of the Lord Jesus, with no estimate upon His worth and value above thirty pieces of silver. If that is your state, well, it is pretty hopeless, is it not?
But leave Judas aside. Leave him aside. Take these others. We are surprised, we are amazed, are we not, that any of them survived? And then the wonderful story is written about them afterwards.
What a story! Why? Why did they survive? Why did they have such a glorious afterward, with all this terrible self-disclosure—enough to shatter anyone, and anyone’s confidence about himself or herself?
“I have prayed,” said the Lord Jesus. “I pray for them. I pray for them.”
So He said in that majestic prayer of John 17, “I pray for them.” For Simon: “But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not.” And then, for us all: “Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession.”
Well, that is the bright side, you see. There may be the dark ordeal, when the Lord is having to make us, in the first place, realize more than ever what a need there is in our own lives for His salvation and His grace.
Oh, how much we need the grace of God! Everything depends upon how much we realize the need of the grace of God. To Him, that is a tremendously important thing: to bring us to be utterly cast upon the grace of God.
So that, really, really, out of the depth, we say, “But for the grace of God, where should I be?” We do not realize that all at once when we first come to the Lord.
Some do come out of the depths and are able to say at once, “Oh, the grace of God is unspeakably wonderful.” But there are a large number who do not have that deep consciousness to begin with. Yet we have got to have it sooner or later: that our whole position, our whole future, our whole hope, rests upon the grace of God.
That has to be not words, not doctrine. It has to be something that is wrung out in deep experience and consciousness. To bring that about, these times of self-disclosure seem to be necessary. We might learn more of the meaning of His grace.
But oh, when we are going through it! Peter—how shattering it all was to him, to realize what was there all the time, what had been there all along. And no doubt that was true of the others, who would never have believed or suspected it.
Now it is all so true. They are just like that after all, just like that. No one would have believed it about themselves. There is a shattering thing in this self-discovery.
How shall we get through? Dear friends, the establishing word is that He who prayed for the eleven, and He who prayed for Simon Peter, the one, and got them through by prayer, ever lives to make intercession for us and will get us through.
Solid ground under our feet is the intercession of our Lord which is going on now. What is our hope? Where is our hope? What is our confidence? Just that.
When we cannot pray ourselves—sometimes that is so—and when we seem to be at the end of being able to pray for someone else, He ever lives to make intercession.
Thank God for the prayer life of the Lord Jesus. It does not relieve us of responsibility, or exonerate us in carelessness in this matter. But when we have reached the end and can do no more, He ever lives to make intercession.
He lives to make intercession. Why does He live? Why is He alive? To make intercession until He has accomplished His purpose.
You read that prayer in John 17 and look at them. He says, “All ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.” Then He prays, “That they all may be one.”
Yes, scattered hither and thither, like a broken vessel—its pieces, its fragments, all over the place. Then, after His resurrection, He collects the pieces from every place and brings them together, and the prayer is answered: “That they may be one.”
And Peter stands up with the eleven there at Pentecost—the prayer answered. They are one. They are one.
Well, there is virtue and efficacy in the prayer of the Lord Jesus. The cross reveals much which disheartens, disconcerts, and would bring us to the place of despair.
His faithfulness in prayer for us—He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. He ever lives.
Let us draw more upon what He is doing now for us. Rely more upon it.
If you feel, any one of you feels, that you can do no more—if your prayers seem to have come to a standstill about yourself, or someone else, or some situation—do not give up. Do not cast away your confidence.
Remember: He is going on. He ever lives to make intercession.