Let's turn to the Gospel of John
chapter 18. Verses 14 through 17 make up
what we know as the upper room discourse, and though historians
like to debate whether or not Jesus spoke and prayed in the
upper room, there is one picture that we need to pay close attention
to. As the Passover meal was prepared
and partaken by the disciples and Jesus, Jesus then tells them
that he is troubled, gives them some teaching, sends Judas out
to do that which he was intended to do, which was to betray the
Christ. And in like manner of the Old
Testament, the high priest would have a meal He would teach, he
would pray, then he would offer a sacrifice. So the very last
thing that Jesus does as the great high priest is after the
meal pointing to the Christ, he teaches, then he prays, and
then he goes out and is betrayed to be the sacrifice. gives himself
to be the sacrifice. At the latter part of 17, he
says in verse 26, I made known to them your name and will continue
to make it known so that the love with which you have loved
me may be in them and I in them. Let's continue. When Jesus had
spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the
brook the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he
and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him,
also knew the place where Jesus met there with his disciples
often. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers
from the chief priest and Pharisees, went there with lanterns and
torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that
would happen to him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you
seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus says to
them, I am. Judas, who betrayed him, was
standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am,
they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again,
who do you seek? And they said, Jesus. of Nazareth,
and then he responds and says, I have told you that I am. So if you seek me, let these
men go. This was to fulfill the word
that he had spoken. Of those whom you gave me, I
have lost not one. Then Simon Peter, having a sword,
drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right
ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus says to Peter, put your
sword into its sheath, for I shall not drink the cup that the Father
has given me. That's all we'll do today. As
I've said time and time again, narratives are not easy. It's
easy to teach a letter that's set up and written in such a
way as to teach doctrine, but there's not doctrine being taught
when you observe a conversation unless that conversation is doctrinal
in the sense of it being didactic, that it's teaching something.
It's also very difficult to know what to say about a narrative. What are we to look at? How are
we to open up and exposit all that we've been doing in John's
gospel? So it is somewhat frustrating. Because if I'm not careful, I
can just decide what application I want to put in there. Jesus
does this and Jesus says that. Oh, that sort of fits here. It
sort of fits there. It sort of fits everywhere. And so we can
just apply things as we see fit or maybe might fit the occasion.
And in doing so, I believe that we fail to bring forth the truth
of why the scripture was written. This story and the betrayal of
Jesus is it's obvious why it was recorded. It's obvious why
we have it in the Gospel of John, so that we might know that He
is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing in His name
we have eternal life. And we've seen over and over and over again,
with the ministry of Jesus through this Gospel for the last few
years, that he has done and is doing in the history of this
writing, he is doing the work in the will of his father for
the sake of the elect, for the sake of the church, for the sake
of his body, for the sake of his sheep, those who have been
given to him by the father that he has redeemed. Now consider the fact that Jesus
is in this place with his Beloved 11 and know what he's told Peter
as we'll see next week that Peter begins to deny Christ Also those
of you who are familiar with the synoptic Gospels Matthew
Mark and Luke You know that there are a lot of things that that
that John just omits Now let me give you some some peace of
mind Just because I don't tell the whole story as you saw it
doesn't mean that I'm not telling the right story The point of
John's gospel is not to dictate the facts concerning Jesus' ministry. It is to reveal the glory of
God in Christ as God, who is the creator of the world, who
came to ransom his people in the flesh as a human being. And
so on and so forth. The others also testify to that,
but John's purpose is specifically to reveal Christ in his divine
glory and that everything that he does record does not segue
and chase rabbits out of that focus. Why would he repeat what's
already there with these other three evangelists, the other
three apostles? also that the Bible teaches of
itself that it is divinely ascribed, inscribed, or prescribed, or
inspired by God the Spirit Himself so that when John wrote this
letter there is no error. None. It is an assumption we
must hold because the scripture testifies to that explicitly. Otherwise, it's up for grabs
and why are we talking about it? So with that understanding,
we know that what John has recorded here has great significance.
And so that what Jesus does and what Jesus says is not in contradiction
to the synoptics or to other things. And quite honestly, maybe
you have had that frustration before. Maybe you have seen things
that, is this really a historical account? Is this an eyewitness
testimony? Why is it different? Why is the
baptism of Jesus not in John's Gospel? Why is Nicodemus not
in Luke and vice versa? Because it is the will of the
Lord that these things are recorded for their purpose. When we see
Jesus leaving the Last Supper, going and teaching his disciples
and praying, the next step in the priesthood's responsibility
is to offer a sacrifice. So I want you to look at John
18 as it unfolds, as Jesus offering himself as the sacrifice. Offering himself. Because it
is congruent with all that we've read thus far. It is congruent
with everything that has been said by Jesus concerning laying
down His life, giving of Himself, doing the will of the Father
who sent Him, that He in His body and His blood may be the
bread of life for His people. So when Jesus gets through praying,
He goes out, and look at verse 1 here, with His disciples Across
the brook Kidron, and there's Old Testament significance of
that brook, David was there, Samuel was there, there's a lot
of significance there in Jerusalem, where there was a garden which
he and his disciples entered. Now what do you do with that?
What do you do with that? I mean, what's the application
there? Jesus got up, got through praying, went to the garden that
he was accustomed to doing with his disciples. I mean, is there
an application there? We should all get up, take our
friends, and go to the garden. I mean, you see, it's a story. It's a true story. that's given
to us, it says something concerning the ministry of Jesus. It talks
and references his humanity. It is a narrative based on a
historical event that took place and it shows and there's a lot
more there if you look at the synoptics. There's a lot more
things that take place. Jesus praying, Jesus coming out
and dealing with the disciples not paying attention. They falling
asleep. There's a lot of stuff that's
not here. But what is here is that Jesus is continually and
intentionally doing the will of the Father. He goes to the
cross. It is time. How many times has
Jesus escaped arrest and death? Dozens and dozens that are recorded.
Every time He gets in front of religious leaders and He says
of Himself, I am, they try to kill Him. When He rides in at
fulfillment of prophecy on the colt, and the whole city is throwing
a parade. Maranatha, Hosanna, Hosanna. They want to kill him. They want
to arrest him. When he's in the temple teaching
and they're irritated by his blasphemous equating himself
to be God, with God, as God, they want to put hands on him.
They send the temple priests in there, the temple police in
there to put hands on him and to put him in chains. And something
stops them. They say, we cannot touch this
man. We are not going to touch this man. And time and time again, even
going up to Jerusalem for this occasion. Remember, they said,
don't go up there because they're trying to kill you. And the narrative
even says that Jesus spent little time in public eye because of
the Jews. But yet there was never a time
where Jesus was fearful of the Jews, for he would say, even
in his first public miracle, my time has not come. Well, beloved, his time has come. His time has come. He knew full
well what was to take place. And even when the disciples were
told time and time again that he would die, they never would
receive that message, would they? No, no, no, no. You don't have
to die. And Jesus says, you're speaking
by the enemy right now. Get behind me. You don't understand. I came to do the will of my father
who sent me. So here, in this little sentence,
he's with his 11 brothers, his spiritual children, his disciples,
praying to the Father, and then he gets up, walks into this area
so he can be arrested. He didn't fight, he didn't amass
an army. They had swords because there
were thugs and robbers and murderers and all sorts of horrible people
that were riding around the countryside always causing havoc and he did
not want them to be subject to being defenseless. So the swords
were for their personal defense, not for their mission, not for
their politics, not to stand up against Jerusalem, not to
stand up against Rome. It was to keep them safe on their
journey to do the will of God. And that's what you see at the
end there. But Jesus goes here, and then the very next thing
it says, now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place. Why? Because it was an intimate place
that Jesus had with his disciples. Something to think about. Isn't
it almost always the most intimate relationship that hurts the worst?
Isn't it always you find the biggest devils in the midst of
the family? Moving right along. Judas who betrayed him knew the
place for Jesus often met there with his disciples So here these
leaders could never find Jesus these the these Pharisees could
never find Jesus These authorities could never put their hand on
where they could get him They'd love to have captured him in
a secluded place like this But every time they had opportunity
was always in public and then when they decided we've got to
do something he vanished from their midst walking through the
crowd, disappearing, all sorts of interesting things because
He's God. But Judas is here now, and Judas
knows the way. Judas knows the way to the way.
He knows where to find Him. He knows that when Jesus is ready
to pray, this is where Jesus goes. When Jesus is ready to
teach in an intimate setting with the disciples, this is where
He goes. So Judas gathers up his little
posse. It says, He procured a band of
soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees
and went there with lanterns and went there with torches and
went there with weapons. I find that very interesting.
Went there with weapons. What did they think Jesus was
going to do? What weapon could protect them
from Him? Here is the stupidity of the
depravity of man's ego, is that we're going to take down God
and we got swords. You've heard the old joke about
charging hell with a water pistol, thinking of hell as this inferno.
Well, that's about how stupid it is to charge God with a man-made
sword. or to charge God with an army?
How many times over and over again does God prove Himself
to show that in the midst of impossible circumstances and
impossible odds, He destroys the nations as He sees fit? I
mean, look at Gideon, 300 men, up against an immeasurable, innumerable
army, and he keeps weeding out men and weeding out men and weeding
out men, and this This little army is like, OK, well, we're
good fighters. We're good men. Let's do it.
And God tells Gideon, nope, you're going to clash some. You're going
to break some jars. You're going to light some torches
and you're going to scream. That's what you're going to do.
Now, think about warfare. How dumb a general would be. to put soldiers up against an
incredible enemy and tell them all we're going to do is break
some glass, scream, and light some torches. And then our enemies
are going to die. Like Joshua and Jericho. We're
just going to march around here and blow some trumpets. We're
going to march around here. Did they have to march? No, God
could have just went poof. Did Gideon's army have to get
up? No, but when they did that, God destroyed the enemy within
themselves. The scripture says that they
killed one another to the very last one. And that's just two examples
of many. And sometimes God sends plagues.
And sometimes God does what He's going to do as He sees fit by
the counsel of His own will. And there has never been a historical
figure who has ever operated outside the will of God on any
scale, how big or small, in any point in history, period. All things come to pass according
to His will. According to His will. These
men come with weapons. And verse four says, then Jesus,
knowing all that would happen to him, he is omniscient, he's
God, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? Whom do you seek? Is that the
attitude of someone who's scared to die? Is that the attitude
of someone who has an ulterior motive? No, this is an expression.
He knows he's going to be arrested. This is the point for which he
came. He's going out and he asks. Why does he do that? Well, we
can see a little bit why he would do it. He doesn't want to go
out there and cause a scene. He doesn't want to fight. He
doesn't want to confuse them and one of his disciples get
arrested or worse, killed. That's not the will of God. It's not going to happen. But
he asked these men and this betrayer, and if you read the synoptics,
you know, how did Judas identify Jesus? He kissed him. He tells
this posse, he says, they said, well, how will we know who Jesus
is? See, they didn't have Facebook, couldn't look it up. He goes,
the one that I kiss is the one. So Judas, in a customary sign
of affection, as a brother kisses Jesus and that kiss is a kiss
of betrayal. Now imagine that. What have the
disciples been told in the last, you know, few hours about how
he's going to leave and it's good for them. And about after
he leaves he's going to go to where he came from, to the Father.
He's going to send who? God the Holy Spirit. And that's
not ontological, that's operational by the way. Just remember that,
we talked about it. The Spirit is omnipresent, omniscient, eternal. He is God, so He doesn't come
like a, you know, well, I gotta sprinkle my fairy dust over here.
No, He's God, the Spirit, a person who is God. He's operating. So I send the Spirit of God to
operate amongst you, to teach you all things that I've ever
taught you, to hold you, to keep you. That's why Paul says at
the Church of Ephesus that the Spirit of God is our seal, the
guarantee of our hope, the seal of our inheritance. God never
leaves us. Jesus says, I will never orphan
you. I will not leave you alone. Though you will scatter, as the
scripture has prophesied, I will not let you fall away. As he
tells Peter in Luke's gospel, when he tells him he's going
to betray him, he says, the enemy has asked to fleece you, but
I am praying for you and your faith will not fail. Jesus tells
Peter that. And Peter's like, I will not
deny you. No. You're all going to deny me.
You're all going to run. You're all going to leave. Peter, you're
going to deny me specifically. You're going to do it. And now
everything that he's just told them, they are horrified about
it. They don't quite grasp it. Why? Because it wasn't revealed
to them to understand the details. God has never been in the business
of telling the future with detail. Even through the prophets, God
would send the prophet to foretell that which was only that which
was revealed, and then the details were left to God. So now, here's Jesus being betrayed
by one of His own. And I don't know about you, but
as a father and a husband, as someone who is oftentimes hyper-vigilant
I find myself in that crowd and I know exactly how I would respond
with my training. It'd be the greatest martial
art movie you've ever seen. John Wick and the Matrix, got
nothing on me in my head, you know? Here we go. We got this. Here they come, Jesus. There's
Judas. What's he doing? I mean, they
didn't really even know. They thought he went to buy some
stuff. We ran out of napkins. Just go buy some napkins. I mean,
you see how the narrative unfolds there. They thought that Judas
was going to pick up some supplies. After all, he had all the money.
And then they see him with these people who are obviously their
enemies. What does it look like when they come out of this garden
and here is this entourage of enemies plus their beloved brother
Judas? And he kisses Jesus, and then
all of a sudden, things change dynamically. You ever been in
a situation that you weren't quite prepared for, and then
the next thing you know, it goes sideways? Well, I didn't see
this coming. You ever been in it? Well, maybe
you haven't. But I've been in conversations with people on
the street before, and it's very pleasant, and everything's going
well. The next thing you know, they're putting their hands on
you. They're trying to shake you up. I know Brother Jesse
has had that same situation in open air preaching. Got dragged
down the street and thrown in some bushes and stuff. I mean,
you're like, where is this coming from? And what do these men think when
they put their hands on Jesus and they draw their swords? I
tell you what they think. Peter shows you what they think.
Get your hands off my master. He pulls his sword out. And he's
not just pulling it out and threatening, he acts on it. He chops the ear
off of Malchus. Did you not hear him? I guess
we clean your ears out. He said, I am get off of him.
I mean, this is, this is violent response of self-preservation
and self-defense. When thugs come after you, the
Pharisee thugs, when they come after you, they, you have to
defend yourself, but not in the will of God for Jesus. for these disciples. And only
by the Spirit of God did it unfold the way it did, because this
is the plan that God had had from the beginning. Jesus, in
His omniscience, knowing everything, moved Himself into the position
of arrest, moved Himself into the place where He would offer
Himself to be the sacrifice as the High Priest. He's remembered
the Passover, He's taught, he's prayed, and
now it's time for the sacrifice, and he's the one. He's the sacrifice. I like how God is so wise. Because these men were prepared,
they were a little scared because they carried weapons, they were
in great number. He had some Roman soldiers, and he had the
leading What do you call them the leading temple police or
whatever and had some of the other chief priests and some
officers there? so we had Roman soldiers Jewish officers and
Pharisees, that's a pretty hefty entourage and They were ready
They weren't sneaking around in the dark. They had lights.
They weren't they weren't caught off guard they had swords and
spears and the Roman soldiers probably had shields and I forgot
about that. I probably wouldn't have done
as well as I thought in my head. Those are pretty, pretty hard fighters.
But I'd have gone down fighting. They weren't unprepared. They
were ready. Just in case they went through
those trees over there and they looked and Jesus had an army
of about a thousand, a good dozen Roman soldiers could kill a thousand
civilians. No sweat. Probably, oh wow, that
worked all day. I mean, you know, they probably
enjoyed it. And the more someone fights,
resists arrest, the more qualified the butt-kicking really is? And
what the story that you get to tell when you go back to the
temple? Oh man, Jesus put up a fight,
but we got him. There was no fight here. Every
one of these men in all of their prideful preparation were actually
walking perfectly in lock, step, breath, and eye blink by the
will of God. Every bit of it. Every bit. Every second. Every time they
inhaled and exhaled. It was by the will of God for
them to be there. And Jesus proves this and shows
this in this purpose of asking, who are you looking for? And
they say, Jesus from Nazareth. And I correct my Bible in this. Because he answered, he said
to them, I am. He doesn't have to be there. It's
added in the English. And the reason that it shouldn't
be there is because how many times has Jesus called himself
I am in his ministry and what has been the response? I've already
said it today. Before Abraham was, I am. And they picked up stones to
kill him because he called himself God. Now here's an apologetic for
you. A lot of times when you get into conversations with the
world, and even evangelical world sometimes, people will say to
you, Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus never claimed anywhere
in the scripture, I am God. And be thankful for that. Because
nowhere in the Old Testament do we see that God, which is
a word, not a name, the high one, is only ascribed to deity. As a matter of fact, in the Old
Testament, Israel are called gods. The judges are called gods
because they're high up. The judges were the highest of
all. The Pharisees would be the highest of all. Israel, as a
chosen people, would be called gods. They are higher and above
all things. But they're not THE God of the
Bible. But God, when He speaks of Himself,
He always used I AM to identify Himself. So that any Jewish person,
or any person that was living at the time of the first century,
when they heard the phrase, Ego e me, I am, they knew that that
meant the God of heaven and earth from the Bible. So there is no stronger way for
Jesus to say I am the only God than to say I am. Look at it
in context. What happens? I'll be honest
with you guys. In 2003, This text, chapter 18 of John's
Gospel, opened up a whole new door for me in understanding
the sufficiency of reading the Bible and putting away. That
week, when I sort of saw this, that's the first year I started
to study the Gospel of John perpetually, 2004. I took and cleaned off every
book that I did not find sufficient to point me to scripture and
I had four books left in my library when I got through. Now I have
made that up and now over the last year or
so I've given away several thousands of books and I'm throwing away
probably that much also. And if they're mediocre, I'll
take them to Goodwill. The heresy, they go right in
the trash. this text. So here he says to them, I am.
And Judas, who betrayed him, was standing there with him.
And why? What's the point there? Judas
didn't kiss Jesus and stand over there with him. He stood with
them. Judas is counted as a traitor. Judas is counted
sovereignly by the will of God in the sovereign betrayal of
Christ. Judas is with them. It's his
posse. It's his group. I believe he
offered some of these officers money to come. And when he said to them, Pictures
in your mind. They drew back and fell to the
ground. That's all you get. But what
comes to mind when you think of drawing back? What does that
mean? They backed up and then they fell to the ground.
What does it mean to fall to the ground? I mean, did Jesus
do like a long leg sweep in a circle and just knock them all down? Yeah. In a spiritual sense, in
a supernatural sense, it could mean that when they heard the
name of God, when they heard him say, I'm God, I am your God,
that they backed up and bowed down and worshiped him. But then
why did they arrest him? It's puzzling, isn't it? It's
troubling also that there are so many commentators who would
ascribe so many silliness, so much silliness and so many foolish
ideas as to what's really happening there. Some people say, oh they
were offended that he blasphemed so they backed up and bowed. No. They were there to arrest
Jesus and they hated him. They were there by the authority
of their God. and their God was standing in
the midst of them and they could not see him. And when he identified
himself as God, Jesus in his divine power threw
him to the ground. Now what pops in your head now?
At the name of Jesus, every knee will Every tongue
will confess, Jesus is Lord. That's to show us, very simply,
that Jesus gave Himself to them. Because if He wanted, He could
have destroyed them with His Word. That by the mere name of
His supremacy, He causes them to be thrown to the ground in
a prostrate position of worship, but they were not worshiping
Him. Jesus, Jesus is the God over all. And He sovereignly set out for
Himself to be betrayed by one of His own intimate brothers
so that He could save His people. Sovereignly. I mean, there's
so many things that we could, but it's all recap. It's all
repeat. We've learned it over and over
and over again for 130 something weeks. We've learned the supremacy
of Christ and his sovereignty in election and in the gospel,
his good news of salvation and redemption through himself. We've
learned it so much that oftentimes we sort of are numb to hearing
the reality of what is being said. Christ can do whatever
he wants, to whomever he wants, whenever he wants, and everything
that he does, anytime he wants, is always righteous. No matter
what we think about it. And so for these people to, by
the power of God, be thrown back and land to the ground, if I
was just off my feet, hit the ground, bowed down, and then
got up, brushed myself off, what would be the next thing that
come out of my mouth? What just happened? Why did this,
how did I fall? Did you push me? Malchus, did
you put your ears bleeding, by the way? Did you push me? What happened? It's like they're
oblivious to it. It's like they didn't even notice
it. I mean, there's not even any of the disciples ever, as
apostles, they don't talk about it. They don't ever say anything,
you know, like when the men were so confused and perplexed and
a little bit divided. Like you see constantly in the
narrative of this gospel itself, where some of the Jews were divided
against the others. Where Nicodemus is brought to
life and begins to believe the gospel in the midst of the teaching
of Jesus there in the temple. Get the Pharisees and the chief
priests. It's better for one man to die than for the whole
nation to perish. And it's only maybe an hour away
where we will hear the Jews cry out, give us Barabbas, crucify
Jesus. So even when it is revealed to
them and it is absolutely obvious to that to every every molecule
of human observational logic. We still don't see it. We don't
even see the work of God happening around us. It's much easier for
us to just relegate it to some other phenomenon. or to ignore
it altogether. Romans 1 says that wickedness
suppresses the truth by works of unrighteousness. What is the
greatest work of unrighteousness? It's to deny that Jesus is the
God of glory when you know good and well that He is. And that denial comes in many
forms. The denial of Jesus comes in
the form of humanism. and evangelical humanism, whereas,
OK, we know that he's God, but it's my part to play. I did this. That's unbelief. It comes in
the sense of a moralism. Rejecting Jesus, as is revealed
in scripture, has many faces. And sometimes it's to take him
at his word in our minds and then with our souls and our flesh
we add to it. Like we've been learning midweek
in our reading through Galatians. Beloved, teach your children,
teach your friends, teach your family the gospel of grace that
is sovereign. For there is no salvation apart
from it. Salvation is not an almost got it, it is either you
are in Christ or you are in death, no matter how much Christ comes
off your lips. For in Matthew 7, we see Jesus
saying to the leaders there as he's teaching, in front of the
leaders there as he's teaching his disciples, the world will
know you by your fruit. And the context of that specific
statement is what false teachers teach versus what true converts
teach. what the Christians actually
profess as the good news of Christ and who He is and what He accomplished
for whom versus what the religious of His day would add to or take
away concerning that witness. These men fell down to the ground
and they stand up as blind as they were when they got there
with the zeal of what they would think was the zeal of the Lord
to put an end to this blasphemer who was their Lord, but He was
not their Savior. And they dust themselves off,
and Jesus, in control of the entire situation with His divine
power, asks the same question again. I want you to see this
picture. Whom do you see? I think I'd be asking questions
if I weren't divinely and judicially blinded, if I were in that circle. And they said, Jesus of Nazareth,
and he says, I've already told you that I am. So if you seek me, let these
men go. Now look what he's doing there.
Why is that important? because the scripture had prophesied
that he would not lose one. Christ saves his people, he secures
his people, he seals his people, he carries us into eternity and
he glorifies us in that day where we will be like him. And in the
purposes of God, before the foundation of the world, these eleven men
plus Saul of Tarsus were going to radically be used by God to
proclaim the gospel to the elect of all nations. Twelve men. It was not the will
of God that they would be killed right then. It was not the will
of God that they would be arrested. It was the will of God that they
scatter, but He and His power would keep them against all sensibility. Against all sanity. And so Christ,
even as the Lamb of God, as the High Priest who is the sacrifice,
is interceding on behalf of His elect right here at His arrest. Let these men go. You have me. This was to fulfill the scripture
of those whom you gave me. I have not lost. I have lost
not one. So then, in 10 and 11, we see
Peter, the zealot, we see him loving Christ, on fire for the
truth of the Redeemer, and then he just can't take it. He'd already
said, right, we'll die with you. Martyrdom is not a test of authenticity
or truth. People die for the dumbest stuff
all the time. People die for myths, people die for legends,
people die for foolishness. Peter was willing. Thomas was
willing. When he says, I'm gonna go up
to Jerusalem, now's not my time, y'all go ahead. Remember that? Y'all go ahead, I'll get there
when my time has come. Thomas is like, let's just go
die with him. Let's do it. Let's just go die. So right then
and there, Thomas is probably thinking, we're about to die.
That's good. We're all going to die together.
Let's do it. Peter's like, I'm not going down
without a fight. And he pulls out that sword and he cuts off
that man's ear. Now what does the synoptics teach
us? See, there's more details there. What happens? What does
Jesus do? You live by the sword, you die
by the sword. Now I've heard that used, and
I'm not gonna get into the Second Amendment kind of stuff in here,
it's not the platform for it, but after service, we can talk
about it, if you wanna waste time. People use that often,
you see, there's no room for any type of personal defense
in the life of a believer. So next time somebody jumps on
you and beats you up for your pocketbook, I'll watch and pray.
Oh Lord, help that person five feet away from me not get hurt. It's not the point. The point
is life doesn't come by the sword. Life doesn't come, success in
the eyes of God doesn't come through rule and power and government
and aggression and defense. There is nothing that God cannot
do and He doesn't need a massive army to protect His people. Do not conflate the sheep of
Christ with America or Americans. We have a problem with that.
We're so myopic in our nationalism that we think we're the only
place that gospel is. It's much thicker and more powerful
in other countries and cultures. But Simon drew that sword, he
cut that man's ear off, Jesus tells him not to do it, to put
it back in his sheath, and he heals the man's ear. He puts
it back on. So not only have they been blown
back into a place of awe, get up, try to tell him, we're looking
for Jesus of Nazareth, as if they didn't even remember. They
see this man get struck, and they see the Creator put the
ear back, and they still lock him up. Why? Because it was the will of the
Lord that they lock him up. Now, we
don't have a... I've looked. There's no roster
of men who were there as chief priests, Pharisees, and Roman
soldiers. There's no list of who they were. I'm imagining
that there's probably 15 to 20 people there. Or maybe more, being that there
were 12 of them. But that's just assumption, speculation
at best. But I imagine they greatly outnumbered
Jesus and his disciples so as to make peace. And yet, it is the purpose of
God that in this arrest they not see. But we don't know who were saved
out of that group. We don't know what it is that
God revealed to them later. We even see that there is opportunity
for redemption by those who were killing Jesus. Those who died
with Him. One was born again, one was reprobate. So we don't know. But at this
moment, it was not the will of the Lord for these men to be
divided and to fight amongst themselves about whether or not
they should arrest Jesus, because the time had come. He had to
die. It is the way to life, not the
sword. I loved our Constitution. I love
it. I exegete it. I argue it. I enjoy
lively debates concerning it. I think it needs a higher platform
in our nation. But it ain't gospel. It's not. And I pray that as
long as we can, we can hold fast to these truths that what we
say are self-evident. But those truths are like a sword. And there is no life to be found
there. And by the mercy of God, many well-meaning believers have
butchered the ears of a lot of people through nationalistic
theology But the good news is that Jesus, this is terrible,
I shouldn't even be saying this, Jesus doesn't allow his word
to return void. I didn't mean to use that illustration
of Malchus' ear falling off in that sense. But if you have ear, here. The operative issue, though,
at the end of this, is that what Peter was trying to do is to
stop the sovereignty of God. He was trying to stop the Lord
Himself, who has all wisdom and all power and all knowledge and
created all things for the purpose of His glory. So Jesus says,
put your sword away. He probably said dummy, but He
didn't record it. He didn't. Put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup my
Father has given me? Isaiah 51 at the beginning of
service today, when we started. And in that text, it talks about the elect of God
suffering and falling away and all of these
things. And then God sets Himself up
in this sense that He stirs the seas. And the reason that there is
a tide is because God stirs the seas. Now that's imagery, it's
not literally. We're not Greek mythologians.
He's not out there stirring it with a big paddle. God's not going, blowing hurricanes. But He is sovereign over it.
And in Isaiah 51, it talks about how He's established the foundations
of the earth and the cosmos and that He covers His people with
His hand by the word of His mouth and that He calls them. He says,
you are my people. How is it that God can call anyone
His people? It's because He has effectually
and powerfully satisfied His wrath and justice and righteousness
in the death of Jesus for them. And even when the discipline
of the Lord feels like wrath, He goes on to say in that text
that the elect of God, Zion, you need to wake up and see that
though you have tasted in some sense the wrath of God, you will
not die. Those of you who are drunk, and
you have heard the wrath and the rebuke of your God, but you
are not drunk with wine, thus says the Lord, Isaiah 51, 22, Thus says the Lord, the Lord,
your God, who pleads the cause of his people. He says these
things. Behold, I have taken from your
hand the cup of staggering. What is that unbelief? We see that imagery all the way
through scripture, especially in the Pauline epistles, where
we stagger. Jesus talks about it in John
10 and John 8. We stagger in the darkness. We
fall around. Jesus in John 3, the light is
coming to the world, but people love the darkness rather than
the light because their works are evil. So they don't see where
they're going. They fall and they trip. But God says, I've taken from
your hand the cup of staggering. I've taken the bowl of wrath
and you shall drink of it no more. And I will put that bowl
of wrath into the hand of your tormentors. who have said to
you, bow down that we may pass over and you have made your back
like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.
You are being walked upon. You are being beaten down. But
Christ has truly taken judgment on Himself for you. And I know
it's hard to think, how do you get all that? It's not didactic
there. It's it's things that we've already
learned that are illustrated in this playing out simply. for us to be encouraged, for
us to worship, for us to believe, to have more faith, for our faith
to be strengthened, for our joy to be full, for the fullness
of the love of God to be understood and apprehended by us that we
know that we are not going to perish no matter how hard or
horrible life may seem. and to also recognize that the
God of the universe put himself forward as to be propitiation
that they just may live by faith in him. And the list goes on and on. So here is the God of all things
being arrested and they bind Jesus up and take him away for
you. Not for everybody. For you. For the sheep. You, the church,
the believing ones. And as we think of the death
of Jesus, please don't let it go stale. Don't let the bread
of life and the blood of the covenant just be another thing
that you do. Another process of worship. Another aspect of liturgy. As
we take the Lord's table today, don't move from the place of
seeing your Savior in the garden just moments after He finished
explaining that His body and blood would be our life, and
that He is powerful to save, and that nothing has come to
pass apart from Him, even His betrayal with Sovereign. Maybe
the betrayal you feel in life is sovereign, too. I believe
it is. The joys, the pain, all of it. The gospel is called good news
because it is the only thing that is. Let's pray.