Alright, good morning. Welcome
to our continuing Bible study in Luke 22. You know, we're in
verse 53 today, We've been kind of in this block
from verse 47 to 53 for several weeks, and there's just always
one more nugget in there. A couple of months we'll be on
our fourth anniversary of being in Luke. It's longer than the
ministry of the Lord here and just studying what He did and
said. So we're going to read from verse
47 down through this block because it's all interrelated. And we
want to be sure and keep the context of what we're talking
about. and understand that the Lord's
Remember all those times in the Scripture where it said they
tried to take Him, but His time had not yet come? Well, the time
had come. And the key verse again here is in
verse 53, When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched
forth no hands against Me, but this is your hour and the power
of darkness. And I think in the In IV, it's, every day I was with you in the
temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me, but this is
your hour when darkness reigns. Interesting translation there. So beginning in verse 47, while
he yet spake, And he had been in this prayer that we talked
about, and he was with the disciples at the Mount of Olives in this
isolated place where they went to retreat for respite. And while he yet spake, behold, a
multitude. And he that was called Judas,
one of the twelve, went before them and drew near Jesus to kiss
him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas,
Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" And you know, it's
interesting, this next verse here in Mark 49, and when they
which were about Him saw what would follow, they knew what
was going on. They understood implicitly what
was about to happen because this armed body came for them in authority. when they which were about him
saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite
with a sword?" So they took one look at this situation and said,
this is an attack. This is a situation here, and
shall we defend ourselves, defend with arms? And then one of them
just went ahead and did it. And one of them smote the servant
of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered
and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed
him. And then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains
of the temples and the elders which were come to him, Be ye
come out as against the thieves with swords and staves. When
I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands
against me, but this is your hour in the power of darkness."
And so our lesson today is entitled, Darkness Seems to Rain. And we'll
explore that as we go through here. Daily I was with you in
the temple, and you stretched forth no hands against me, but
this is your hour in the power of darkness. To the lost, to
the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, it seems as if they
have power. From their point of view, they
got a large body of men together, comprised of various sources
and they armed them. Jesus said, you come with swords
and staves. And other scriptures said they
had lanterns because it was dark. It seems as if they have power
and that darkness reigns. But what's really interesting
here is they didn't consider it darkness. It was physically
dark. But the darkness in them extended
far beyond the physical realm and well into the spiritual as
we've seen. And in a larger sense to the
lost, those vessels of wrath, it seems as though they have
many powers. And here we're going to draw
some inferences just to the way things are in the world and how
they are in religion as a whole. And these folks were from the
temple. They were the elders. the chiefs of the temple. They
were the religious folks. And it seems they have many powers
that they do not, in fact, really possess. And such is the effect
of sin and the fall. It gives you a false sense of
perspective on things, and you think you have power, you think
you have power to choose, you think you have power of free
will, you think you have power to do good and substitute for
the substitute, this interesting phrase that we've been using
here for a bit. Power to deny God, power to deny
sin. Isn't that kind of sum up a lot
of the things that we find in religion? Well, I have power to choose or not
to choose. Well, in reality, our base power
that we have as unregenerate people that are dead in trespasses
and sins is, the scripture says, there is none that seek God.
So that's pretty all-inclusive, isn't it? And so we find we don't
choose Him. We choose instead our concept
of the power of free will. And we have power to do good.
And we say that, well, if I do enough good things, I can substitute
that for the bad things that I've done. And we totally ignore
what God has determined is the true substitute, which is Christ
and Him crucified. And we deny the power of God
to have any power over us. And we deny that we're sinners
in any significant sense. Maybe we're little sinners. And
some even say, I'm a great sinner. They boast in their sinfulness
as it's an attribute. As it relates to these folks
that come after Jesus, the key words here are your hour and
the power of darkness. These words used by Jesus to
address the priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders
of this Jewish religious sect, those who were in truth the very
ones that should have been proclaiming the gospel. They were the ones
that were entrusted with the scriptures and proclaiming the
gospel. That's what they should have
been doing at the temple and all the sacrifices and all the
things that they engaged in in a religious way. They should
have been saying, The Messiah is here. They should have been
saying that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
They should have been doing all that, but they absolutely did
not. And they were highly offended. the things that were going on
when the true Messiah came, all ye will be offended this day. And you know these words, your
hour and the power of darkness, these words specifically express
an ability or power which has been granted them And an hour,
the word hour indicates a specific time or season to exercise that
granted power. This is your hour, he said. This
is the time that's been foreordained and decreed and predestined from
before the foundation of the world. This is the time that God specifically determined would
happen. Darkness indicates obscurity,
shadiness, and it's from a root word indicating darkness of error. And you know that's kind of with
the same kind of a general word that we find in Genesis 1. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. So you can explore that. So in
total, as we look at these men that came, and they're on this
side and the disciples are over here in the garden. All these
men were gathered and given ability, and we say permission. Norm and
I were talking about that word this morning. It's more than
God says, I give you permission. They were permitted, okay, but
they were permitted to do what He had before determined to be
done. And we'll explore that a little
bit more here. But they were given ability and permission
to do what God before determined and purposed to have done. As we look at this scene that
develops, hearts were hardened just as Pharaoh in the Old Testament
who experienced so many signs of the power of God, and yet
pursued his evil intent. You know, he had the frogs, and
the blood, and all the darkness, and the death of the firstborn.
All those things that happened, And God said, I'm going to harden
his heart. And then he said all these things
about Pharaoh that his power might be made known. So God had
a purpose and a will in all those things that happened to him for
this very purpose. Have I even raised you up? That
my power might be shown as relates to Pharaoh though. So these men
that were there with these staves and swords to arrest Jesus, same
thing. Turn with me to Acts chapter
4. Because the very guys that are
going to bail on Jesus here in a few verses, They're preaching the Gospel
here in Acts 4.25, say, "...who by the mouth of thy servant David
hath said," and they're going to quote the Psalms here, "...why
did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things, or
useless things? The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and
against his Christ." for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou has anointed he was the anointed substitute and there
is no other there's nothing else that can be substituted for the
substitute both Herod Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel were gathered together, and if you don't have
this underlined in your Bible, you could highlight that and
underline it, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. determined before to be done.
You know, that's kind of typified by Joseph in the Old Testament
back in Genesis chapter 50. We can go back through there
and see how Joseph's brothers were jealous of him. He had that
nice coat of the many colors that we talked about in kind
of a foreshadowing of the grace, many aspects of manifold grace
of God. So they got together, the eleven
brothers, and they said, he's a pain, you know. Dad liked him best. The rest
of us were getting stiffed. Well, let's kill him. Okay. All in favor of killing him,
signify by saying aye. And all 11 hands raise up their
hands and say, okay, let's kill him. So they take him out, throw
him in a pit, and they're debating on probably on how they're going
to accomplish that. And they said, hey, you know
what? We could make a little on this deal. This is right by
a caravan route. Here comes one now. We could
sell him, be rid of him, and make a little something for ourselves.
Okay, all in favor of that, raise your hand. So they sold Joseph
and he got hauled off to Egypt. And they thought, well, I'm rid
of him. never have to see him again.
We only got to split the inheritance 11 ways now instead of 12. And we got rid of the one that
Dad always liked best. So we find out, as we come to
the conclusion of that story in Genesis 5, verse 20, it says,
But as for you, Joseph's speaking to his brothers, and he says,
you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to
bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. What
a picture of Christ. They thought evil against him,
but God meant it for good. God meant it for good to bring
to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. What
a benefit for the church. What a blessing for the church
that these men and everyone that's enmity with God meant it for
evil and God purposed it and determined
it and used it to save much people alive. Every facet of the events
occurring were determined by God and were written aforetime.
He was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
A lamb slain. And we have that represented
clear back in Genesis. God shall provide himself a sacrifice. Every facet. And the reason for
that is that the Lord's people would have great faith in the
sovereignty of God and strong consolation in the face of everything
that goes on. And when He reveals His Son in
them, they say, thank God. Hallelujah. Because if it weren't
for Him exercising that in me, I'd be doomed. Every facet, he
said, this is your hour, an hour that was predestinated, an hour
that was fixed in eternity, an hour which in the fullness of
time had arrived and arrived precisely as God had before determined. Time for the delivery of the
Son of Man had come. Him being delivered, by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God." The scene in our text describes a company
of men in their unregenerate state appearing to apprehend
the Lord of Glory. Can you imagine that? Just kind
of put your mind in an imaginary sense of you're there and You see Him as the Lord of Glory,
they just see Him as an ordinary man that can do some stuff. Their plan was obvious even to
the disciples as we noted in verse 49. Those who were about
Him saw what would follow. They said, they're going to arrest
Him. Probably they thought, He's going to arrest all of us. was
their thought back then. They find out that they arrest
no ordinary man. Yet they're so blind because
of the sin of unbelief that in spite of what they personally
will witness, they carry on with their evil intent. Judas warned him, said, hey,
you know what? This guy's slippery. I've seen him disappear in a
big crowd. when it wasn't His time. His
time had not yet come. They tried to apprehend Him and
throw Him off a bluff, but He escaped. He says, catch Him,
but try not to hurt Him, you know, just apprehend Him, but
contain Him. The ability over the Almighty
was eternally arranged. It was permitted, as we said,
but it was permitted according to the absolute, determinate
counsel and decree of God Almighty, and all for the purpose of the
eternal redemption of the elect of God, of His church. You know, Jesus, a little bit
later, as we move on through this gospel, we find Jesus before
Pilate. And Pilate says, You know I have
power over you. And Jesus said, you could have
no power at all against me except it were given, and that word
means bestowed or granted, unless it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered
me unto thee has a greater sin. Well, I'd like to call your attention
here to a really interesting word because you might find it
in the margins of your King James versions. But here in John 1911,
where we just read this quote from there from John 1911, thou
could have no power at all against me except it were given. If you
underline that word given there, In your Strong's Concordance,
you can look that up under G number 509. Didomai, I think is the
Greek word there. And it means bestowed or granted. And then a couple words over,
it says from above. Well, that's the Greek term G509. Excuse me, I messed that up a
little bit, but from above is 509. That is the exact same word
that you find translated in John 3, 3, unless a man be born again. Unless a man be born again. you
cannot see the kingdom of God. But here it's translated, unless
it was given you from above. So if you put that into John
3.3, unless a man be born from above, spiritually, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. So a little side trip there for
you for that word, just an interesting word. A quick glance at a few
other scriptures give us a fuller picture in how it was foreordained
in eternity and written before time in the Old Testament. It was determined And not just
foreseeing. God just looked down and foresaw
what was going to happen. And then he was in a reactionary
mode based on situational motivation that was currently going on. No understanding of God, no understanding
of eternity, no understanding of the infinite understanding
and wisdom of God, no understanding of the determinate counsel. You know, in our base text here
in Luke, I'm not going to, because we're
maybe a little low on time here, we're not going to read the whole
section from 47 to 53, but this is your hour in the power of
darkness. And if we skip over to Matthew 26, we get a few more
details on what was happening here. In Luke it says, one of the disciples
drew a sword and whacked off the ear of one of the priests, or the servant
of one of the priests. And in Matthew 26, 47, while
he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with
him a great multitude, with swords and stakes, from the chief priests
and elders of the people. And behold, one of them, which
were with Jesus, stretched out his hand, and drew his sword,
and struck a servant of the high priest, and smote off his ear. And we know that was Peter, because
that's recorded We find that recorded for us in John 18, verse 10. Then Peter drew his
sword and smote off the ear of Malchus. It even gives us the
name of that high priest. So, I just don't want to inundate
you with a bunch of facts, but I just want you to have an understanding
of what went on. Peter whipped out a sword and
whacked a guy's ear off, and he was, as Norman says, he was
probably going for the whole enchilada. But it was deflected
according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. It was deflected in purpose to just take his ear off, which
is no small... I don't know how many of you
guys have had your ear cut off. But it's not pleasant and not
pretty. And any injury that you have,
your head bleeds a lot. There's a lot of blood vessels
in your head. It was probably a bad scene. And Jesus said,
put up your sword. And he touched and healed that
servant. So here you've got a guy who's
got blood all over. He probably thought, oh, my head
was just nearly cut off. He's got blood all over him.
His ear's laying there on the ground. Jesus comes up and touches
his ear and heals it. And He says, put up your sword. Put your sword again in its place. For all they that take the sword
shall perish by the sword. You know, there's such a lesson
for the church here in physical versus spiritual things. Trying to win physically, it's just
like religion with works. It's just a picture. It's an
allegory for us to examine and say, you know what? They tried
to win that argument physically, and it was just never going to
happen. And the Lord had to undo that. He had to say, that's not
the way. and then he had to fix it. And
it's spiritual versus carnal. The scripture says our weapons
are spiritual. We do not war after the flesh. Our weapons are mighty through
God, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 and 4. We can't convert anybody by physical means. That's the
long and short of it. We can't. We have to rely on
the gospel being mighty through God. That's what that picture
is all about. And Jesus said, You think that
I can't now pray to my father and he would presently give me
more than 12 legions of angels? If that's what we were really
trying to do here, if we were really trying to accomplish some
physical victory, he could send me 12 legions of angels and these
guys would be toast. Because that's not the point
of me being here. But how then shall the scriptures
be fulfilled? Thus it must be. That's what
he told the disciples. A larger question here might
be how, in general, there is in religion a perception that
God is not infinite in His wisdom, that He acts in a reflective
manner in response to current motivations, and that perhaps
He's not able to achieve anything without human assistance. That's the nuts and bolts of
religion, basically. You've got to do a little something
to help Jesus. It's not grace and grace alone. He doesn't need help. He's almighty. He said, all power is given me
in heaven and earth. In his prayer in John 17, he
says, thou has given me all power that I might give eternal life
to as many as thou has given me. He doesn't need Well, I only
have like 99% of power and I have to get the rest from Mike, the
1% or whatever. What a fallacy. Matthew 26, 55,
in that same hour, Their hour and the power of darkness
said Jesus to the multitudes, Are you come out against me as
a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple and you laid no hand on me. But all
this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."
Every word for ordained, every word, every action for determined,
preordained, predestinated, whatever you want to say. God had decreed
it and said it all according to His purpose and will before
the foundation of the world. And these people were just carrying
out the orders from headquarters. But they were doing it according to their own will.
They purposed to do it. according to their own evil intent. And they thought they were doing
God a favor. You know, we're from the temple. We are the religious
folks. We've got to get rid of this
usurper. You know, the next thing it says
in Matthew there in 26.56 is, Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled." And we're going to look at that a little bit
more here in just a minute here. But Mark, we went through the
Gospel of Mark here some time back, and his account pretty
much mirrors what's written in Luke here. But John adds a few
details that we don't have in either of those accounts or Matthew,
but said in John 18, And this is really important
to what I'm trying to convey here about this is your hour
and the power of darkness. Judas then, having received a
band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons, John
18, 3. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon
him, underline that. Nothing was a surprise. He was
the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. All
this was according to the determinate counsel of God in the Father
and the Holy Spirit who are one. Knowing all things that should
come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. And Jesus saith unto them, and
I think this is a powerful sentence here, should be underlined and
highlighted in your Bible, I am He. I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them." That's pictorial too. He stood with
them. And as soon as then as he had
said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground.
That's why I say when he said, I am, this is so potent. This is so powerful. This is
a declaration. This is the Almighty speaking. And when He said that, they fell
back. They fell down on the ground.
They were knocked down. That's what that Scripture means.
They didn't just go, what? They went backward and fell to
the ground. And He asked them again, Whom seek
you? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And He answered and
said, I told you, I am He. If therefore you seek Me, and
you can highlight and underline the next several words, let these
go their way. This was not a plea. This is
a command from the Lord God Almighty. Let these go their way. That the saying might be fulfilled,
which is already written a four time, Of them which Thou hast
given me, I have lost none." That's what he said in John 17
that Pastor Wayne brought out last week or a week
before last. Of them which Thou hast given
me, I have lost none. That's a direct quote from his
high priestly prayer in John 17. And John, as he reports,
his success to God in his prayer in John 17, 12, while I was with
them in the world, I kept them in thy name, those that thou
gavest me, I've kept. And none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And in that verse 12, he's quoting Psalm 41 and Psalm 109. So we have two quotes from Jesus.
One that he's quoting himself in the New Testament and one
where he's quoting himself in the Old Testament. Let these
go their way, sheds light on the office of Christ as the sole
mediator. Isaiah said, I've trodden the
winepress alone. These guys can't be with me.
They can't be arrested and killed the same time as me. I've trodden the winepress alone,
and of the people there was none with me. Again, they arrest no
ordinary man. Think about it. Think about the
events that have just occurred. Peter whacks a guy's ear off,
Jesus heals it. He tells him, this is your hour
in the power of darkness. He said, let these go their way. Imagine witnessing all that.
Imagine Him saying, I am, and you just suddenly are picking
yourself up off the ground. Imagine that. And imagine the
disciples. This just tells you how much
grace means, how much grace is invaluable, how much grace is I can't think of a word that
expresses the absolute necessity of. But here's all these disciples
that have been with Jesus all this time, seen Him do all these
things, seen Him raise the dead, cause the lame to walk, and the
deaf to hear, and the blind to see, and healed all manner of
every disease, leprosy, all these things, and yet still in their
human nature they say, He needs help. I need to whack that guy. I need to kill these guys, because
they're going to take Jesus. And without grace, you don't
see. He says, don't you see? If I
prayed to the Father, He'd send me 12 legions of angels, if that
was what was the program. So even in grace, even in the
church, we have to constantly overcome It's a process of thinking
that He needs help when He does not. And you know, in spite of all these
things, because of the fall and without grace, they still move
forward with evil intent in their hour and the power of darkness. We mentioned before that, if
therefore you seek me, let these go their way, as viewed as a
command. Well, I'd like you to turn to Psalm
118 verse 27. Psalm 18, verse 27 says, God
is the Lord which has showed us light. Can you imagine how
much light He just shed on the situation by putting that guy's
ear back on, by knocking those guys backwards to the ground,
by saying the Scriptures must be fulfilled in all things? He
showed them some light right there. And the next thing it
says in Psalm 118.27, mind the sacrifice with cords, even to
the horns of the altar. Psalm 118.27. Well, back to this
little extra information that we were getting from John 18. It says, then the band and the
captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him.
and led him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas,
which was the high priest that same year." How precise is the
Word of God? How precise is this foreshadowing of what was going
to happen in Psalm 118? God is the Lord, which has showed
us light. Bind him and haul him away. He
did all that, they bound him and hauled him away. Light had
been showed, he was bound and led away, being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, to be taken, and by wicked
hands, crucified and slain. Truly, according to the sovereignty
of God, their hour and the power of darkness had come. Well that's all the time we have,
so until our next lesson, made free by the substitute, be free.