In Matthew 26. And we've got our sermon companion guides. There's a couple laying back there. And if you need an extra sheet just for today. I don't know if Erie has one extra one.

I printed a few. So if you need one, just raise your hand and we'll get it to you. But anyway, today we're looking at the arrest of Jesus and the denial of Peter. And of course, we mentioned last week, too, I believe that all the other disciples had scattered and fled when this happened. And now it's the beginning of the trial of Jesus and what he was put through at that time.

So I want to read to you today. The scripture is Matthew 26, starting in verse 57.

Now, the ones who had arrested Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, in whose house the experts in the law and the elders had gathered. But Peter was following him from a distance all the way to the high priest's courtyard. After going in, he sat with the guards to see the outcome. The chief priests in the whole Sanhedrin were saying or were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so they could put him to death. But they did not find anything, Though many false witnesses came forward.

Finally, two came forward and declared, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. So the high priest stood up and said to him, have you no answer? What is this that they are testifying against you? But Jesus was silent. The high priest said to him, I charge you under oath by the living God, if you are the Christ, the son of God.

Jesus said to him, you have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on, you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, he has spoken blasphemy. Why do we need more witnesses? Now you have heard the blasphemy.

What is your verdict? They answered, he is guilty and deserves death. Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. And some slapped him, saying, prophesy for us, you, Christ. Who hit you now?

Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A slave girl came to him and said, you were also with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied it in front of them all. I don't know what you're talking about. When he went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there, this man was with Jesus the Nazarene.

He denied it again with an oath or a curse, saying, I do not Know the man. After a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, you really are one of them, too. Even your accent gives you away. At that, he began to curse. And he swore an oath, saying, saying, I do not know the man.

At that moment, a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. Let's pray.

God, I think you've got stuff to tell us today. I'm not important. I'm just here to try to discern your word and to share it. I think you've got some things you want us to learn today, some ways you want us to grow, some ways you want us to be strengthened and encouraged. So, Lord, I just pray that you would give me the clarity of thought and speech this morning and that you would also give us the open ears to hear, that you would remove any distractions from our mind, distractions from within, whatever is going on, Lord, that you would just remove that so that we can focus here today on what you have for us.

Lord, continue creating us into the people that are useful for you and for your kingdom. Strengthen us by your word, convict us by your spirit, and may we grow in Christ and be the salt and light of this world. In Jesus name, Amen. So my first, like, focus on this is Peter. Peter gets so much in the scripture, like, so much that is about him.

I mean, he's like one of the first guys to answer anything. He's like the first guy that actually admitted that he believed that Jesus, their friend, their rabbi, that he was actually the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God. Now, that alone had already actually been declared by the leaders of their religion that if somebody admitted that Jesus was the Messiah, that that person would be excommunicated from the assembly of believers, from the temple and from the synagogues. That's a big deal right now. I know, like, the Catholic Church, they have, like, excommunication.

And in some churches, every now and then we'll have somebody that's like, their behavior is so damaging to perhaps the physical safety of another person or in some other way that were like, you aren't welcome here anymore. I've only had to take part in that twice. And it grieved me every time, but it was for the safety, the actual safety of people that were at the place. Didn't quite have enough to turn over to the police to have him arrested. But, boy, I was like, this one dude, I know he's getting arrested at some point, like, we just don't have the evidence of it ourselves.

You know, he did get arrested actually one day. I found out later, but somehow made it back out to continue his crazy stuff that he tries to do to people. It still broke my heart though, because it's like what I want is to see everybody, like, you know, at home in the church obeying Christ, like, living how they're supposed to. It breaks my heart when somebody actually has to be like, sent away, you know, this, this confession of faith, though, that Peter made was enough that if the wrong people had heard it, or the right people, whatever, they would have said, peter, you're no longer welcome. As a good Jewish man, you're not welcome in the assembly of the Jewish people that declare that the Lord our God is one, because you have said that this man is the Messiah and equal to God.

And so that was one of their big things that was a problem. So Peter, he started. He was the first one that started claiming that Jesus had said, who do you guys say that I am? We looked at this a few weeks ago. Who do you guys say that I am?

Peter's the one that spoke up and declared that it takes a lot to make that declaration of faith in a vocal way in our world. I mean, for you to stand up in just about anywhere. Like, I guarantee, if you go to lunch today, by the way, if you go to lunch today, somebody had to work today instead of being at church in order to serve you. If you do that, give them a lot of money on your tip, period. Okay?

Anyway, like, I don't care if they were the worst ever. Just still, though, like, the cook burned your steak. Oh, boo hoo. You should have stayed home and made it yourself and done a better job. That's on you.

Like, give them a tip. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, if you go to lunch today and you just stand up, you're like, hey, excuse me, I've got an announcement. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and I'm one of his followers. Few people would clap because Christians, you've gotten lazy and you forgot how to cook on Sundays and you like to go to restaurants a lot.

And so there would be a lot of Christians there after church. But if you do that on like Monday, a lot of people be like, okay, weirdo, can you keep it to yourself? You know, this isn't church. Go to church and do that, right? Like, if you make that declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, that he's your savior, a lot of people would kind of automatically be like, all right, fine.

It takes a lot. Even in what we call a Christian society, a Christian majority nation, it's still, like, a lot to say that Peter makes it at the risk of his own reputation and ability to be in the assembly of believers, at the temple, at the synagogues, et cetera. And so when Peter does that, like, we gotta give him props for this. Then of course, he turns around a little while later when Jesus is like, hey, we're gonna go to Jerusalem and. And they're going to kill me there.

And he's like, whoa, hang on a sec, Jesus, I'm going to stop you right there. I'm not letting you go to Jerusalem. And Jesus is like, get out of my way, Satan. He calls him Satan, which also means, like, adversary. So maybe he didn't mean, like, the devil himself, but like, he's saying, you're in league with Satan, you're on the side of the devil.

That's never a good thing to be. Have you ever done that thing where you're like, I'm just playing devil's advocate. Probably the wrong person to advocate for. You know what I'm saying? Like, don't.

Anyway, I know it's just an expression, but it's still funny. So this is Peter at the Last Supper. They're commemorating this Passover meal. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. There they all are.

And Jesus is like, hey, by the way, bombshell. You guys are all going to leave me tonight. And you're like, no. He's like, yeah, one of you is going to betray me. You're like, what?

Who? And he's like, I won't say any names, but it's the guy that dips his bread with me. And there's only literally one other guy that's going to do that. It's Judas, you know, so it's like, I think it's him. And so Jesus ends up sending Judas away.

He's like, go, do what you got to do. Like, I know it's you. Go ahead and do it. You know, a little passive aggressive, I think. I'm not sure.

And so he sends Judas away. The rest of the disciples, they're thinking, we're not going to abandon him. Why would we abandon Jesus? They have no idea what's coming. Minutes after that, an hour after that, Jesus takes them out.

He goes to the garden of Gethsemane, the olive grove, the place of the pressing. It was called look that up last week. We talked about it there. It's all online. I'm not gonna get into the whole thing, but they go to the place of the pressing, where they press olive oils.

But instead, Jesus is being pressed. His blood is actually coming out like sweat. It's commingling with his sweat glands, and the blood is coming out of him as if he were sweating drops of blood. And as he's doing this, he comes back, he finds his disciples, the ones that said they would never abandon him or deny. He finds them asleep.

He's like, wake up, pray. Wake up, pray. How many times have you been there where God's like, wake up, pray. You're like, oh, but I like sleep so much. Why pray when sleep is so satisfying?

Like, we'll fight it. Have you ever found yourselves fighting against the will of God, even in matters of sleep, where you're like, no, I need my precious eight hours. It's like, how long did you spend scrolling your phone before you fell asleep, you moron? Like, you spent hours doing that, and you won't pray for, like, 10 minutes in the middle of the night because you like your sleep? Are you kidding me?

I look in the mirror when I say that. I've done it so many times anyway. I know I'm the moron. So Jesus, he speaks to these disciples, and he's like, why aren't you guys praying? The biggest spiritual battle you're going to deal with is coming up right now.

This is the time to be in prayer, and instead you're lying down. If you look at the pictures of the Garden of Gethsemane, pictures, they're like, laying on a rock, you know, like they're sprawled out comfortably on a rock, asleep. I don't know how they fell asleep on a rock. You know, I've fallen asleep in a lot of places. Rocks are difficult, but it's possible.

And there they are. They're asleep on a rock, you know, And Jesus is like, wake up and pray. Finally he gets to the place where he says, up and at him, time to go. Here comes my accuser. It's early morning hours.

They're coming with, like. With torches and swords and clubs. They're coming to arrest Jesus, the most peaceful man ever, except for that one moment in the temple where he has the whip and drives out the animals and flips over their money, changers, tables and everything. Like, he does all that. But other than that, most gentle, peaceful guy ever.

And they come at him ready to fight. And Judas walks up leading the mob. Judas could have been the guy that said, listen, I'll betray him to you, but I'm telling You. He's just going to be like, okay, where's the. Where's the cuffs?

Or whatever they had, you know, like, tie me up. Like, he'll come peacefully. Judas should have known that even. But, but even Judas, he's leading them and Jesus says, judas, are you betraying me? Like, come on in.

Judas comes up and gives him the kiss of greeting. And he says, oh, you're betraying me with a kiss. That's pretty cool. Nice move, Judas. And then they take Jesus away.

One of his disciples, Peter, pulls out a little short sword. It's usually like used for a tool. And he pulls it out. He's a fisherman. They had to like, filet fish and stuff with these tools.

So he's got this medium length sword. And he decides, I'm going to try to take a dude's head off. The guy ducks. He only gets his ear. I think that's how it happened.

I don't think Peter was just trying to cut off a guy's ear. That's silly, you know, but. But, you know, he. He's going for the guy's head and the guy ducks. He takes the ear.

Jesus picks it up. He's like, here, we'll put that back on. Like that. That alone would have made me like, wait a minute. Are you sure we should arrest this guy?

Like, I watched him just put an ear back on. Like, he didn't even use an iron. Like when you're doing shirts, you know, or whatever. Like a lay press on ear. I don't know.

I don't know where my brain's at. I'm sorry.

And so they lead Jesus away. Peter, he's this guy that, like, he's the first to say everything. And he's the. He's the one that he's. He's like, he's not willing to just totally abandon Jesus.

So he follows at a distance. Now they show up, they're outside the high priest's residence. Caiaphas is his name. Caiaphas is not a good guy. Caiaphas is.

He's. He wasn't a priest in the proper lineage of priests that were supposed to come from the bloodline of Aaron, the brother of Moses, from centuries before. He comes from a political line. He comes from this idea that Rome is in charge of Israel and they will only allow religious leaders that align with their desires for the nation. Now, right now, we mostly don't have that.

However, there's a lot of shepherds that are up for sale right now. There's a lot of churches that have done things that align with the government's narrative and desires rather than aligns with the scriptures and with the Messiah. And I've said it before, like, you just can't afford to buy me. The number is more astronomical than anybody can imagine, because money isn't worth that much to me. In fact, the value of money keeps going down a lot, doesn't it?

Like, inflation is ridiculous. Your dollar doesn't buy you very much. Don't put your trust in it. Put your trust in God. And so there's a whole lot of churches, there's a lot of pastors that are willing to kind of like, say, you know what?

I'm not going to put as much value on this word of God if the government tells me that I've got to tone it down a little bit about certain things. That's who Caiaphas was. Caiaphas was a high priest who was willing to say and do mostly according to the law of God, but only doing it if it pleased the Roman governors over him. Because if he didn't, he gets removed from his job. He doesn't have the cushioness, the luxury, the wealth that comes along with it, the prestige and the honor.

And so he doesn't want to get removed from his position. Most of the religious leaders had sold out along with him in that day.

So Jesus, he's led to the place of Caiaphas. And outside the gates, outside the archway into there, Peter's hanging out. There's some early risers that are some of the servants, and they've got a fire going. They're doing the warming your hands thing and all that. They got a fire going.

And Peter just casually strolls up and they're like, this guy doesn't dress like he's from here. They might start some small talk that gives him away. He's from Galilee. It's a different place. Like, they have a different thought process, a different way of talking, different slang, different accents.

His way of speaking gives him away. And a servant girl who has no power over Peter is the one that trips him up. Remember, Jesus said, wake up and pray lest you fall into temptation. A lowly servant girl, the. The weakest amount of societal power a person would have is standing before him and says, you're probably with that Jesus guy that they just dragged in there, aren't you?

No, no, I'm not with him. What are you talking about?

He goes away a little bit, moves himself further down. Another servant girl finds him, same deal. She probably runs off and she's like, hey, I, I think we got one of his guys right here. We should probably do something about it. They all start talking.

A group of them comes over, they're like, you're with the Jesus guy, the Messiah guy, right? He starts cussing out, cursing them, calling down curses upon himself. And as soon as he does it the third time, saying he doesn't even know Jesus, he hears a rooster crowing.

One of the gospels tells us that he went outside and wept bitterly because Jesus had told him it would happen. And he swore that it would never happen. So many of you right now you're sitting here and you're saying like, I trust Jesus, I know him. He's done some things in my life. I wouldn't ever abandon him.

I wouldn't turn my back on him. I wouldn't back down from sharing witness of who he is. And then something comes, I don't know what it is, whatever it might be, something happens in your life and you're like, I'm just going to keep that part of me hidden a little bit. Not going to share that with this group of people. It's not a popular opinion.

I'm not going to tell somebody. When they start questioning things, they say, oh, all religions are the same.

Not my God. Absolutely not. See, my Jesus is the one that rose from the dead. You can't find his grave. They think that they know maybe the tomb that he was laid in, but it was a borrowed tomb.

Lawrence and I were at a conference yesterday and Dr. Richard that was there speaking, he talked about this time where he was. He goes to different countries and does this evangelistic work. And he was talking. I forget where he was at, but he wanted to. He called a funeral home and he wanted to borrow a casket or rent one.

And they're like, those are usually kind of a one way deal, you know, like they go somewhere and they get left there forever. He's like, no, you don't understand. Like I'm, I just, I need to borrow one for like an illustration. And so the guy's like, I guess we can do that. So he borrows a casket, but he's doing it to show like, you know, like Jesus.

You know, most people, they get put in this and they stay there, but Jesus tomb is empty. Like it's so empty because he rose again, is so empty that it doesn't matter if we know what, which one of those tombs in the rock was used for him because it's so irrelevant. He didn't need it for long, right? Jesus said in John in the Gospel of John, he says, I'm going to lay my life down of my own accord. He says, nobody takes it from me.

You think you have power to take my life? No, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord, my own authority. I have the authority to do that. I also have the authority to take it back up again.

Folks, there are people who have been raised from the dead right now in this country. A lot of times people are like, eh, that was in the Bible times, right? Listen, you talk to some people that have done missions work in other countries, in far flung places, in places where they're not quite as sophisticated as we are, you know, they don't have quite as rich of a belief in the unsupernatural. Like we're, we're the see it and touch it people, you know, like we have to be able to see it to believe it, right?

There are people that have been ministering in other places of the world. They've seen people raised from the dead multiple times. I'm not talking like they were just in surgery and like they were out a little bit, you know, had a near death experience and brought back to life talking like they've seen people raised from the dead. Here in this country we say, nah, doesn't happen. Cool.

Probably doesn't because of that opinion, that mentality, that lack of faith that we have because that uncreative distrust in God. But I'm telling you folks, there have been people raised from the dead and that's great, good for them and their families. But when Jesus came back to life, it was so much more than just coming back to life because he did it of his own authority. He had the authority to lay his life down for you and he had the authority to take it back up again for you. Because in his death you can have sin absolutely slaughtered in your life.

You struggling with sin today, that sin can be taken from you because Jesus died. Why are you still fighting a battle he's already won? Why are you still saying, oh, I'm going to struggle against sin a little bit, I'm still going to keep trying. I'm going to just really keep my nose to the grindstone or whatever they say. I'm just going to keep my head down and I'm going to stay at it.

You can't do it on your own, but Jesus did it for you. Live in the power of the life that Jesus has let his death. Jesus on the cross. The Bible tells us he became sin. He didn't have any sin in his life, he became sin for us so that when he died, sin died.

You're still following something that's dead and doesn't bring any life. It feels like I'm doing an Easter sermon here today, doesn't it? Oh, this is great. We're like a month early for Easter. But Jesus, he came back to life.

And with his new life, he offers that life to you. His righteousness is given to you, it's imputed upon you. His righteousness is imputed upon you. His new life is imparted to you. Those are theological terms.

You can look them up later if you want.

Peter denied Jesus so many times. We want to deny Jesus in the face of somebody saying like, ah, your religion, that's your choice. That's your thing that you're following. Somebody else is a Buddhist. Somebody else is in Islam.

Somebody else is this or that, whatever it might be. Folks, none of them have ever died for you. None of the leaders, founders or adherents of those religions have ever died for you and rose from the dead. None of them have ever offered you new life or eternal life to stand there and even listen to somebody say that and not say, no, not my Jesus. See, he's different.

He's different from what you think he is. He's different from everything that you've known and lived and believed. You know the same guy, thinking of this conference yesterday, the same guy, he said he went to show up. I forget what country he was in. He went to this country and he was supposed to speak.

He had a whole message for them. And he got up and he said, what was it? Jesus Christ is Lord was his phrase. And he says they just start. They start like, boohooing, they start praying, they start praising God.

People, it was a Muslim nation. And they just start, like, falling down on their faces before God. He just preached the shortest sermon that I think a human has preached, except for, like, John and Jesus preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. He just says, jesus Christ is Lord Jesus. And they bowed to that.

What did Jesus say? One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Folks in this country, so many times I believe that we've gotten so comfortable, so complacent, and so willing to just kind of go along with whatever we're told, that we won't even understand the gravity of the phrase that Jesus Christ is Lord. All these other religions have nothing. They're just stories.

They're just people trying to make sense of life and they're missing the Point. But Peter, he denied Jesus. And we do too sometimes. But when he denied Jesus, he did it as predicted. And he starts weeping and crying because he realized that the one that he had claimed he would give everything up for, he failed him.

I think it's the Gospel of John that tells us at that moment, Jesus was able from where he was being judged by the false authority high priest. Jesus was able to look out through the gate and he saw Peter. Now that moment, the rooster crows and he looks at Peter. It doesn't say Jesus shook his head at him in shame. It doesn't say that he pointed his finger at him like I told you.

It doesn't say anything like that. But he looked at him, Peter went outside and wept bitterly.

I gotta fast forward a little bit. This wasn't in anything. I just want you to hear this.

The last chapter of the book of John, John 21, they believe, was added a little bit later. A lot of scholars think that John the Apostle didn't write that and that somebody else wrote it later. I disagree. I think John finished the book at chapter 20. And then sometime later, his friend Peter had died.

He was. He ended up being crucified upside down by the Roman authorities at one point, because as a follower of Jesus, they were trying to do away with him and the miracles that he was producing and the people that he was converting to this faith in Christ and they were going to crucify him. He says, hey, one problem with that. Could you guys please just. I'm not worthy to die like my Lord and Savior did.

So could you just do it in a different way? Like maybe just turn me upside down or something? And they crucified him upside down because he didn't feel himself worthy to die in the same horrible and gruesome manner that his Lord had died.

I think sometime after Peter had died, John wanted to set a record straight on something. I think some people had some judgment for Peter and he's like, hang on, I need you to know the end of the story. So he writes another chapter in the later half of John, chapter 21. He tells this story about after Jesus had rose from the grave and he meets him and he told them to go up to Galilee, to the seashore of Galilee. And they go up there and they've been fishing one night because they were bored.

And that's what they just defaulted to doing. They hadn't lost faith in God. They just. Jesus wasn't around and they're like, Peter's like, I'm going fishing. Like, I'm bored.

Let's go do it. So they go fishing. They fish all night. They don't catch anything. Jesus shows up and he's like, hey, do you guys have any fish?

This is a replay from an earlier incident, by the way, when they'd been fishing all night and didn't catch any fish. Jesus calls them to be fishers of men that morning. Now, years later, there they are again. Jesus shows up. Do you have any fish?

No. He says, that's okay. Throw your net down over there and you'll catch some. So they do that. They catch 153 fish.

I still haven't figured out why the significance of 153. There's a few explanations. None of them make much sense to me. But they bring them in. Peter doesn't wait.

Peter strips off his outer garment. He's swimming in his skivvies up to the shore to get there faster. And he gets there, and he goes up to Jesus. Jesus already has some fish. I don't know how he caught him.

Like, if he just did it like a bear, you know, with the salmon and grabbed them or bought them from somebody or just, like, commanded them to jump onto the fire. I don't know. Anyway, somehow Jesus has some fish already cooking. Like he's got breakfast for him there. Pretty cool of him.

And Peter just standing there, like, sheepishly, because the last time he'd seen Jesus like this, he'd been denying that he ever knew him. So Jesus talks to them a little bit. Then he's like, peter, come here. We got something to talk about. And they start walking down the lake shore, and he says, peter, do you love me?

He says, yeah, yeah, I love you. He says, well, then I want you. I want you to feed my sheep. Now, Jesus has already called himself many times over the good shepherd. He calls his flock, the people that are following him, the people that are listening to him, he calls them his sheep.

He says, peter, I want you to feed my sheep. I've called you to be a fisher of men. Now I'm changing that a little bit. And I want you to be a shepherd. Now that's a different story.

Like, a fisher of men is kind of like an evangelist. Like, go out and share the gospel and win people over to belief in Christ. But now I'm calling you to go and to actually take care of them. That involves like, kind of buckling down, staying in one place and caring for the needs of people. And so Peter says, yeah, you know, I love you.

And Jesus says, feed my sheep. Then he tells Him a second time. Do you love me? Now we read it real quickly. I think they just kept walking a little bit, and he's like, do you love me?

And Peter's like, we just answered this. Yes, yes, yes, I love you. He says, well, take care of my lambs. Lambs, the little ones, the babies, the ones that need so much care. I want you to take care of the lambs.

And then they walk a little later, and there's a third time. Jesus says, peter, do you love me? Says, Peter starts crying. He's like, lord, you know that I love you.

He says, okay, Peter, there's going to be a time later in your life. You know, when you were young, you dressed yourself, you went wherever you wanted to go. There's going to be a time where they're going to dress you in an outfit you don't want to wear, and they're going to lead you somewhere you don't want to go. John tells us they were talking about Peter's death, what we learned from history, about what I said about him being crucified upside down. I believe that had already happened at the point where John writes this as like an addendum to his gospel.

And he's saying, this is what Jesus had said would happen to Peter. He. And he was preparing him for it. And he was saying, there's gonna be a time where some things are gonna happen that aren't necessarily like, what you would want to happen, but I want you to be prepared for it. Now, folks, I gotta tell you, there's gonna be times in your life where there's gonna be something in your walk on this earth and your sojourn here on this earth where you're gonna be saying, I love Jesus and I'm gonna serve him.

And then you're gonna be invited to partake in something that is contrary to the gospel. There's gonna be conversations you're part of, and the jokes are gonna get a little bit raunchy, the conversation is gonna get a little bit wicked, and you're gonna be tempted to join in with that. Ask me how I know.

Sorry if I've led those conversations.

And Jesus is preparing us to say in those times, are you gonna do. Are you going to be. Are you going to speak according to your faith in me, or are you going to try to blend in with the crowd? Are you going to try to just hang out and warm your hands around the fire and say, okay, I'm just one of y'. All.

I'm just hanging out here. I'm just a traveler. I just wanted to warm my hands and like, aren't you one of those Jesus people? That's the moment that you should be prepared for. Are you going to stand up and say, even if you kill me, I love Jesus?

Because, folks, while Peter's doing this, what they're about to do is they're about to start abusing my Savior. They cast their judgment on him. They brought liars in. They couldn't get anybody to tell the truth. Finally, the only way they could convict him was to bring somebody in that spoke a truthful statement out of context.

I know that the news and the media never does anything like that today. And they pull it out of context and they say, jesus, are you going to answer this? And he just keeps his mouth shut. You can't argue with the lies, but God can. Jesus was vindicated and Jesus was justified in the face of all these lies.

But they cast their judgment on him and they mocked him. They said, oh, you're a king. We'll treat you like a king. They put a false robe on him. They made a.

Not just a crown, like a neat little pretty round thing. They made a helmet of thorns. They twisted it together and they pounded it into his head. They hit him with a staff like it was his kingly staff. But they hit him with it.

They spit on him. My Jesus, my Savior, the one that died for me. They did these things to him. And I have the audacity to say, like the disciples, oh, I'll never turn on you. I wouldn't have done that, guys.

You don't know what you would have done. Most of the crowd went along with them that day. Most of the crowd in a few hours would start shouting, crucify him. He's no longer fit to put feet upon this dirt of this earth. Crucify him.

Folks, the good news is that Jesus only had to suffer once. He was crucified for your sins and mine one time. Once for all. The righteous man. For us unrighteous sinners, he never has to die again because death has no hold over him.

See, he took death to task. He took death to the grave like he took death away. And folks, there will be a day where they'll write something online. Newspapers are mostly gone now. I guess I was going to say they'll write it in the newspapers, but they'll write it on some news site.

Whatever thing we're doing to commemorate these things, they're going to write down at some point the other number on the right side of the dash, you know, you got the first one the year you were born and a dash. And then the day that you took your final breaths on this earth, I got to tell you, you won't be dead. I mean, your body will be done. Your body will have breathed its last, right? Your body will be no more, folks.

You won't be dead. See, we are created as eternal beings. And there's that part of you, that soul within you that will continue on, you, continue with God. Because Christ is your Savior, because you've loved him and cherished him your whole life.

Will you be placed in a position of eternal bliss, of heavenly bliss with your Creator and your Savior?

Or will you spend your life denying God, turning your back on Jesus, saying, I don't want anything to do with Him, I don't know him, calling down curses on yourself, not allowing him to restore you to the purposes for which he created you to live and go away to eternal separation with God. We call that hell. And a lot of people are living it here on this earth. But I got to tell you, the hell that they're experiencing on this earth is nothing compared to what it will be. And the joys on this earth that you experience today are nothing compared to the joy of heaven.

The joy of walking with Christ right now surpasses all understanding and all peace on this earth. He is the one that offers that to us. So I want to tell you that this morning you have the opportunity to. I'm with God.

I'm living my life to serve Him. I'm not going to deny Jesus Christ. I'm going to spend time in prayer, knowing that those times of trial are coming and that those times of being kind of pressed into a corner are coming. And I want to spend time now praying that God would strengthen.