Mathew 26, verse 1. Matthew 26:1. And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all the sayings, He said unto his disciples, you know that after two days is the feast of Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.

Before we commence every study, we ought to always ask what is the purpose and the objective of it. This is the pattern we see in the epistles. where every writer who wrote the episode more or less always conveyed why they wrote it and what they wanted to achieve through that teaching. So when we come into this very sensitive teaching and matter on the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask ourselves, what is the purpose of this study? What can be achieved through it? What can be the outcomes of looking at the sufferings of Christ? We are reminded first of Abraham Because he was at a dire situation once, where the Lord asked him to offer his own son and his own child. But when he saw that in the place of his own child, a ram can be offered, he called the Lord a new name, a name that he had never called the Lord before. He said, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. Then he prophetically added this statement in saying that, In the mountain of the Lord, it will be sealed. And he was given this vision that the ram dying in the place of his own child is a mere shadow of how God will one day provide for his own generation for the whole world. That in the mountain of the Lord it will be seen and the word seen is the basis of the word “Providence”, where God provides and God foresees something beforehand and makes provision for it.

And that's probably the first outcome that we will come across when we study the sufferings of Christ like Abraham, we would worship the Lord. The Lord Jesus told of Abraham that, He rejoiced to see my day. And when He saw that day, when the mount of the Lord God will provide, His heart was filled with joy. and that's probably the most fundamental outcome that comes at the cross, where we find ourselves as worshippers. Not mere worshippers with our lips and words, but being encouraged to sacrifice like the Lord sacrificed.

But there are more grave consequences that we will come across when we study the sufferings of Christ. Some things that are things that we will not like. That are very unpleasant to us. For example, when Peter looked at the cross, he said, Like Christ has suffered in His flesh, we need to arm ourselves in the same mind, because the one who suffers in His flesh will cease from sin. And that's what the cross teaches us. It teaches us to suffer enough flesh so that sin may die. The sufferings of the Cross teaches us that our flesh needs to be crucified. It teaches us that we need to arm ourselves in the same mind like Christ suffered in His flesh.

So, when we see the body of Christ on the Cross, and we see His flesh being battered, His flesh being scorched, and His body being rent like a veil in two, that's the best picture. The best thing it can ever do to our own flesh. Our flesh is worthy of the cross. Our flesh is worthy of death. Our flesh is worthy of the cross. Our flesh requires mortification. It requires crucifixion. It requires the old man to be dead. And there is no greater example, no greater lesson that can be learned than looking at the cross, where the one who died to sin teaches us to die to sin in flesh. Where the cross is the best thing, the best picture, the greatest example of what one can do to his own flesh. It's only a mere shadow of how we ought to ourselves be killed and be dead daily to sin.

For Peter puts it that the one who suffers in his flesh will cease from sin, that the way to victory over sin is suffering in the flesh. We cannot live a life where we pander our flesh, where we make provisions for our flesh, where we make our flesh to be alive. The desires of our flesh needs to be starved, it needs to be killed, it needs to be subjugated, it needs to be brought down, it needs to be dead. The one who is truly dead in his flesh, one who has suffered in his flesh, will cease from sin. And the Cross of Christ teaches us the greatest. He suffered great things in his own flesh to show us that our flesh is worthy of the worst. Nothing less than the death on the cross. Probably more than just the mortification of our flesh, the sufferings of Christ will also teach us to fulfill what is lacking in that suffering.

Paul looked at the cross that way and he said, I fulfill what is lacking in the suffering. Where Christ's suffering changes the way we suffer. The suffering of Christ invites us to suffer. The suffering of Christ, though at the end He said it is finished, yet it requires His own Bride also to suffer. That like Christ suffered for life, the Church is required to suffer for life. That in death is forgiveness given, in death is life offered. That the suffering of Christ is not the end of it, it is only a picture, it is only the beginning of all great sufferings. The pinnacle of it is when at the end times there will rise a man who is anti-Christ and he will wage war against the saints, and the saints will suffer uncontrollably, where if the Lord was not to intervene, the Lord says there would be an end of all saves.

The suffering of Christ is only the beginning of all sorrows. Paul understood that and said, I am just suffering what is lacking, what is yet to be completed, what is wanting in the suffering of Christ for the sake of the Church. And so, the sufferings of Christ invites us to suffer. It invites us to be bold in that suffering, not to be fearful, but to be bold in that suffering. Above all, the sufferings of Christ will also teach us to endure it. There is no greater lesson on endurance we can ever learn than to learn it through Christ on the Cross. He, having set joy before Him, despised the shame thereof, and endured the cross. The Cross requires endurance, it's not a single pain, it's not a pain that goes over a moment. It requires perseverance.

And so the Hebrew writer says, consider one who has endured such great hostilities from sinners against himself. The Hebrew writer encourages us to consider the endurance of Christ on the Cross, to consider the one who has endured such great hostilities. from sinners against Himself. Lest we be weary and lest we fail, where if we were to not look at the Cross and if we were not to look at the sufferings of Christ, then most assuredly our own sufferings will swallow us up. It will exhaust us. It will weary us. It will cause us to be faint. And so the Hebrew writer says, consider the endurance of the one who endured great hostilities. And then he said it this way, that none of us has ever suffered to the point of bloodshed. Where the sufferings of Christ is the greatest of all sufferings, we don't even get close to it.

The sufferings of Christ makes us endure sufferings, all kinds of sufferings, whether it be persecution, whether it be infirmities, whether it be hostilities, whether it be hatred, all kinds of sufferings. That's why when Peter was writing his epistles to a suffering church, he often referred to the example of Christ. And he said that Christ is the one who did not revile when he was reviled. He did not threaten when he was suffering, but he committed himself unto the one who judges all things well. There is no greater lesson on endurance, perseverance than what we see at the cross, where someone who is inherently endured with omnipotent power, where someone with a beck and call can call out legions of angels at His disposal, where someone who is at the heart of God, the beloved of God, God the Father, who can ask the Father anything, constrains Himself to be hanging on the cross with nails. He restrains all His power, so there can be no greater example on endurance and perseverance. than Christ on the cross.

Lastly, I think the sufferings of Christ, once we have seen it, will greatly humble us. It's I think J.R. Miller who said it that there's nothing in the universe that cuts us to size like the cross. We all have inflated view of ourselves till we visit a place called Calvary, where we shrink to our true size. There's nothing that can humble us greater than when we see what Christ suffered. Why is that so? Because the scripture says, Christ suffered, when we were utterly hopeless, for Christ died for the ungodly. So, at the cross we see our true worth. At the cross we lose all our balloons, all our gas. We are truly deflated at the cross. We are truly cut to the size. Not that of a man, but that to a worm. For at the Cross, we get to see the greatest of all immorality and all wickedness. The ugliest form of human wickedness is displayed at the Cross. It's at the cross we see our true worth.

We cannot be like the Pharisees who thought that if they lived in the days of their fathers, they would not have killed the prophets. Similarly, we cannot think that if we lived in the days of Christ, we would not have put Christ to the cross. We cannot think so because we are in that sin. We are in the midst of those who put Christ to the cross. It's like how the hymn writer says, the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice among the scoffers. It is our sin. We are very much in it. It's a display of what human heart can achieve. It's a display of what human heart can imagine. So there can be nothing more humbling than to see our own involvement, our own hands in that blood.

You see, when the Lord visited Babel, He came down, He saw the tower and He put it this way, He said, They all speak one language, they all are one, and whatever they have imagined, there is nothing that can restrain them from accomplishing it. The Lord put that as a warning, that if all wicked men get together as one, then whatever the wicked heart can imagine, There is nothing that can restrain them from accomplishing it. And that's what you see at the cross, where all wickedness becomes one. Where soldiers and common men that never got along together became one. Pharisees and Sanhedrin's that hated themselves to life became one. Herodians and Pilate that hated themselves became one. And when all the nations come together, when all the Gentiles come together, when all wicked human hearts come together, where there is no restraint of the conscience, where there is no restrains of any sovereign godly power, where even God will not come in the way of what man wants to do. That is what the cross shows can be accomplished. It's the pinnacle of human wickedness. And we are all in it. It shows what we are truly worth.

It's at the cross where we see ourselves and say, Alas! And did the Savior die? And did the sovereign bleed? Would He devote that sacred head for a worm like I? It's at the cross where we are truly cut to ourselves. It's at the cross where we see not just a servant, but the Lord and Master dying for men. Where we are put to our place and shown what it means to be a servant, what it means to sacrifice, what it means to love to the uttermost. There is nothing that is more humbling than the sufferings of Christ.

And so with this hope in mind, we come to... Look at how Christ suffered. With this hope in mind that the sufferings of Christ and its concentration will bring us to worship, will bring us to mortify our self, will encourage us to fulfil what is lacking in the suffering, will encourage us to endure our sufferings till the end. We'll truly mortify ourselves, we'll truly humble ourselves. And like the psalmist, we would consider what is man, that you are mindful of. You would consider how precious are your thoughts towards us.

When we want to begin this study on the sufferings, we probably can begin at this passage which we just read in Matthew 26. We'll read this again, Matthew 26 in verse 1 and 2. And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these things. He said unto them, He said unto his disciples, You know that after two days, it's the feast of Passover, and the son of man is betrayed to be crucified. It is in this Gospel where we see a definite change, a flex and a definite starting point to that passion, to that suffering, where Matthew, when he has written all this while, he says, And it came to pass when Jesus had finished. where there is an end of one thing and now is a beginning of another.

And it's beautiful how Matthew puts a full stop and says, Christ finished saying all things. It's a great honour that Matthew ascribes to Christ. It's the kind of honour that God first ascribed to Noah, where Noah did all things as the Lord commanded. It's the kind of honour that God ascribes to Moses after having made the tabernacle, is written that Moses did all things as the Lord commanded. And Matthew, after having recorded all the sermons of Christ, all the words of Christ, he says, this was the end of it. Christ finished saying all things. And this is the heart of the Old Testament Messiah. A Messiah who is going to come with grace poured into His lips. A Messiah who is going to come who will cry out in the midst of concursus, in the midst of streets, in the open gates, the One who will cry out righteousness, the One who will not hide the righteousness, the One who will not hide the loving-kindness and the truth of God. He is the Messiah. who will be like the wisdom, that's how Solomon puts it, the one who is like wisdom crying out in the streets. And so the Lord Jesus, when He came down to this earth, He came down with a vision to be that Word of God.

Imagine it this way, from the Book of Malachi to the Book of Matthew is a great silence where God did not speak. And the Book of Malachi was the end of all dreams and visions and prophets. And in that deafening silence of 300 years, when God indeed begins to speak, He begins to speak through a cry, a cry that says, prepare your way. And then comes a shout, a bigger cry of righteousness, the one that is wisdom, standing in concourses, standing in open places, standing in open gates, declaring the righteousness of God with grace poured in his lips. so much so that the people would say, no man spoke like this man. that with such gracious words he spoke. You see, it started even at the end of age when he was in the temple, when he's speaking with learned lawyers and Pharisees and scribes, and they marvel at his understanding and at his answers.

Here is the Word of God on the face of the earth to speak the words of God, so much so that the Lord Jesus would tell the people that I speak not of myself. But the father that sent me has commanded me what I should say. So much so that when people came to arrest him, they came back without arresting him that the soldiers would say, never a man spoke like this man. This is how John looked at the whole ministry of Christ and said, It is the word of God that was with the father has come down. that when no man had seen God at any time, the only begotten of the Father, who has come to declare Him unto us, has come to declare the Lord unto us, has come to declare the fullness of the glory of grace and truth unto us.

And so as much as the sufferings of Christ was important, Matthew makes it a point to say, the Lord finished all these things. It's like how the Prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah and said that, The Lord God has given me a tongue of the learned, that I shall know how to speak a word in season to Him that is weary. He wakes me morning by morning. He wakes my ear to learn, to hear like the ear of a learned. And that was the life of Christ, waking up morning by morning, learning of the Father. hearing of the Father, so that He has the words to speak to those that are weary. And at times he wanted to speak more. But he was constrained like how he told to Nicodemus, I speak earthly things and you do not receive. Nicodemus could not even receive the teaching of the doctrine of being born again. And then the Lord told Nicodemus, What will you do if I speak heavenly things? I have only spoken what you know so far in the scriptures. What would you receive if I were to speak heavenly things?

Even the night before the Lord was crucified, He gathered the disciples to speak unto them. And at one point He said, I have much more to speak, but you cannot bear those things. You cannot receive those things. Here is the one who came to speak, the Lord who came to speak the words of God. More than what one can receive through Prophets, through prophecies, through dreams, through visions. It is this work of the Lord that makes the cross of Christ wonder, like, how can someone who spoke these words end up at the cross? How can someone who came to declare the fullness of the glory of Christ, after having said these words, end up at the cross. It is this contrast that Mathew brings in the gospel because from now on till the end, there are no teachings, there are no doctrines. In fact, the Lord told all the people who came to arrest him, I spoke daily in the temple. There is nothing more to be said.

And so when he prays the prayer in John 17, he says, I have glorified you on this earth. I have finished the work that you had given me to do. Over here, He has finished the sayings that God gave Him. After having finished saying all things, after having finished all the work that God has given Him, Matthew begins the account of his sufferings. It is this distinction between the words of Christ and the ultimate work of Christ on the cross that makes it glorious. That makes the work of the Messiah complete and fulfilling.

You see Mathew, when he wrote the gospel, he consistently referred to the Old Testament scriptures. and he kept saying that in this the word of the Prophet was fulfilled. He kept referring to the prophecies too and underlining it and saying that in this the prophecies were fulfilled. And that's the narrative that Matthew continues even in the sufferings of Christ. You see this in verse 1. This is Matthew's understanding. This is Matthew through the Spirit of God saying, It came to pass. When Jesus had finished all these things, He said unto His disciples, You know that after two days is the feast of Passover. So we have come quite close to the Cross of Christ. It's just two days away before the Lord will be crucified. And when it is just two days away, the Lord Himself is saying that at the feast of Passover, He is going to be crucified.

Let's continue reading verses 3-5. You see how Matthew narrates and brings the link between the prophecies of the Old Testament and the sufferings of Christ. Verse 3, Then assembled together the chief priests, the scribes, the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest. who was called Caiphas and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill. But they said, not on the feast day. lest there be an uproar among the people." Where Christ says it is on the feast day that the Son of Man is going to be crucified, the moment He says that two days to the cross, there is a group of people that have come together, and they seem to have come together to fulfil the scriptures, but there's something grossly going wrong.

Where one they have now decided that Christ should not die on Passover day. Let's wait for it to get over. That is fundamentally contradicting all prophecies. Where the very image of the lamb being shed for death to pass over, is now at stake. The Christ who is the Paschal lamp, now people have come together and they have decided out of their own mind that Christ should not die on the Passover Day. And Matthew always brings this mind, brings this to attention, the instances when men try to foil the plan of God and God's still won over, when men try to work against the prophecies of the Old Testament, but God made it. God still brought it to pass. And so here we have a big issue. When men have got together, they have decided that Christ is not going to die on the Passover Day. They have also decided that Christ is not going to be crucified. Because if He is not going to be dying on the Passover Day, they say they are going to do it subtly.

They are going to trick Christ. They are going to... do a harsh job and get rid of Christ. If it's going to be a harsh job, it cannot be on the cross. So most probably they just wanted to stone him and get rid of him. And again that is such a fundamental contradiction to all the prophecies because Christ has to die the death of a one hanging on a tree. He is to die the death of a cursed one. And here is the greatest contradiction. The contradiction here is that yes, all the elders, all the leaders, all the possible leadership of the religious and political system are together. But yet there is a crucial person missing. Because crisis in World War II, he has to be betrayed. He cannot be tricked. He cannot be taken by surprise. But it is necessary that one of his own acquaintance, one with whom he stayed, one with whom he lived, one with whom he went to the temple daily, these are the prophecies of the Old Testament of the stake.

That yes it's necessary of the priest, of the chief priests, of the elders, of the soldiers, they are all necessary, but there is also a betrayer that's necessary. So if they decide that let's take Christ by surprise, let's trick Him, let's subtly arrest Him, let's get rid of Him. They are fundamentally getting all prophecies wrong. One that Christ should die on the Passover day. One that Christ should die the death of a cross. And one that he cannot be subtly taken or tricked. He has to be betrayed by his own. And Matthew narrates this incident so beautifully to show how despite the vices of men, how despite the wicked heart of men, God's will and predetermination was always at stake, was always in control.

So we read in verse 6 where Matthew says, Now when Jesus, and that's a very significant diversion, now when Jesus was in Bethany. A lot of people have pointed out a contradiction in the scriptures because Matthew says that it is two days before the Passover and the same incident in John says it is six days before the Passover. And so there is an apparent contradiction. Is it two days or is it six days like John says? Well, here is how Matthew always writes, and he writes to show how scriptures are fulfilled. He has taken us to a cliff and he is showing how things are going wrong, how the plans of man are against the predetermined counsel of God. And now he is going to explain how it all came back together. And so to explain that, verses 6 through 13, where He talks of the anointing of Christ by Mary through an alabaster box, this whole passage is like a parenthesis, it's like a bracket.

It's like in a narration of a story, you are at the present, but you take a pause, and you go back to the past to explain this has happened in the past. So there is a change in tense now when Jesus was in Bethany. It's not to say that when Jesus was in Bethany two days ago, no, Matthew is going back to the past to explain that there has something happened in the past that brought all things together. And that was the wickedness of Judah. It is written in verse 8, when his disciples saw it, they had indignation. He is referring to the incident when the disciples of Christ were angry to see Christ being worshipped. Matthew says disciples because they were all in it, but John specifically says it is Judah's Iscariot. He is the one who knew the price of the perfume. He is the one who said this is worth 300 denarii. He is the one that boiled in indignation and wrath to see a simple Rabbi being worshipped. He is the one that just considered Christ a Rabbi.

And he never got the teachings of Christ. He never understood the signs and miracles. And the anointing of Christ by this weeping woman was a tipping point for this person. He had it enough. It’s like the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the end of his mind. Because at the end of it, when he saw that Christ is being worshipped with such a costly ointment, and a man who was so greedy, who wished to get that money himself, he said it's enough. and that's where we read and pick ourselves back in the present in verse 14. Then... Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went into the chief priest.

And so, Matthew is just showing what happened in the past that had influence in bringing things back to the prophecy, to the prophetic timeline. He's just showing that what happened in Bethany was not two days. It is indeed six days, like how John says it. It is something that happened in the past. But what happened in the past was a great influence in foiling the plans of man. So six days before, Judas had enough. Two days before all the people got together, and they planned things according to their own mind, according to their own heart, against the scriptures. Their plans was contradicting the prophecies. And if there was anything that would change that, anything that would bring them back to the prophecies of the Old Testament, to fulfil the death of Christ like the predetermined Council of God, that was Judah's Iscariot.

Then, Judas walked in. Then Judas met the chief priest. You see there are two thens in this passage, in verse 3, then assembled. and was plotting then Judas. It's like when all of them had gathered two days before, and they were planning their hearts out, they were imagining weird things, they were planning according to their wisdom of how to trick Christ, to crucify Christ, to store Christ, to subtly take Him, to do it outside the Passover, they were planning things outside the will of God, when suddenly, to their own gladness, Judas entered the room. and we read in the other Gospels that they were glad to see Judas. Well, the narration of Matthew over here, he's showing the curves, the precise moments, the effort, that how God was in control to make things fall in its rightful place, in its rightful way, at the rightful time, with the rightful person.

They were planning to do this all by themselves, but they needed a Betrayer, and the Betrayer walked in. And when the Betrayer walked in, to their unfortunate... to their... bad luck, He walked in just two days before the Passover. When they're deciding, let's wait, let's wait for the Passover to pass over, that's when Judas walks in. And Judas says, I can hand Christ to you. And so these Pharisees, these chief priests were constrained because an opportunity like Judas doesn't knock twice. If he decides that he's going to betray Christ, he's going to hand over Christ, then he decides to get, he decides when it's going to happen. So they had to be at standby always. Now it's no more about subtly taking Christ, it's all about Judas betraying Christ.

And Judas will decide when it's going to happen. Not these people. and for their bad luck, Judas decided at the eve of Passover. It's at the eve of Passover that we read Satan was put into Judas and the Lord told Judas, Do what you are supposed to do. And you see how beautifully God working the counsels of his prophecies that he prophesied against all odds of human heart and wisdom. And so Judas decides that he is going to betray. Judas decides it's going to happen at the eve of Passover. And that solved the third problem. If it's going to happen on the eve of Passover, it cannot be stoning. It cannot be trickery. You can't just hush and do it. The whole city is filled with people. And if it's going to happen on the eve of Passover, then you are completely absolved in it. You are completely excluded in the killing of Christ. You can do nothing to kill Christ. And yet, if you still want to kill Him, you now need to take Him to the Romans.

And the Romans knew only one way to put a person to death, and that was a cross. where the walking in of Judas completely turned the tables and brought all the prophecies in place. that they had no option but to rely on this person. This is the prophecy that Christ had to be valued by His people, that He will be valued by thirty shekels of silver, not less, not more, that it has to be one of His own with whom He worshiped in the temple that will hand Him over. that it has to be on the day of Passover when the Lamb is being slain at the temple altar, that Christ will be crucified on the cross, and that it has to be the cross that cannot be stoning because no bones of His has to be broken. God brings all of this together through the wickedness of human heart. Yes, the humans wanted Christ dead with all their wicked heart, but they couldn't do it the way they wanted except the will of God. This is how the Lord brought in His wisdom to pass, that they killed the Prince of Life, but not without the predetermined counsel of the Lord from eternity pass. May God’s name be glorified.