How Will You Respond?

Good evening church. If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 14:43-52. If you’re using one of the pew Bibles, we are going to be on page 715. Last week, I preached on the Savior’s Sorrow and how Jesus can sympathize with us and what it meant to us for him to drink the cup of God’s wrath. Today we are going to focus on the betrayal itself in the garden of Gethsemane, and specifically three different responses to God’s plan of redemption. Follow along as I read starting in verse 43:

Mark 14:43–52 NKJV

And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now His betrayer had given them a signal, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him and lead Him away safely.” As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. Then they laid their hands on Him and took Him. And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” Then they all forsook Him and fled. Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

My hope this evening is that you will respond in faith to God’s plan of redemption.

Let’s pray.

In Acts 1:15-20, Luke writes that Judas’s betrayal of Christ was to fulfill what was written of Judas in Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. What we have in our text this evening is the fulfillment of Scripture in relation to the redemption plan of God. That’s it. That’s all I got. Love Christ and live life. Let’s pray.

Just kidding. What this means for our text tonight is that the plan of God’s redemption is the thematic focus. What we are going to discuss this evening are the different responses to God’s plan of redemption. We have three: Peter’s, The rest of the disciples’, and Jesus’.

Peter’s Response

First, I want to look at Peter’s Response. Here in our text it says, “And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.” (47) How do we know that it’s Peter? Because John writes, “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.” (18:10) So we have Peter responding by drawing a sword and “fighting” for the cause of Christ with violence. The way that we will break down each of these responses and unpack the “Why” behind their responses and then how this might manifest itself in our lives.

(1) Peter believed that Jesus’s end purpose was to conquer and rule right in that moment. He thought that God’s plan was mere external and that Christ was going to conquer Peter’s physical enemies. You see, Peter had a wrong understanding of God’s plan. He had a misconceived idea of who Christ was and he read it back into God’s plan of redemption. His violent response is the fruit of his wrong understanding of who Christ was and therefore, of what God plan of redemption was.

(2) What does this look like in our own lives?

(a) We can have fruit that shows that we might have the wrong ideas of who Christ is. We might believe that if we are being obedient, everything should work out for us. We think if we do all the things that our kids should obey every word that we say, we should never be late for work, never have people bug us, never have a flat tire, never lose money, and never have health problems. When we see Jesus as our store clerk, we think that our obedience to him should be able to be exchanged for physical blessings and if we aren’t careful, we will fall into a form of prosperity gospel.

(b) Another way that this can come out is seeing Jesus as a Genie or a DJ. We just walk up to the table, or rub the lamp of prayer, pop in our request, and get whatever our heart desires. This is a slight variation of prosperity gospel, but tied to our prayers rather than our conduct. This too, is a poor way to view Christ. This leads to a view of God’s plan of redemption that is focused on health and wealth and not what God’s plan of redemption really is. You might wonder, “How do I know if I am viewing Christ this way?” Well, how do you know that an apple tree is an apple tree? You look at the fruit. Are your actions resembling someone who gets angry when they lose their stuff? Do you get angry when you get a flat tire and drop some swear words that you wouldn’t normally say in everyday conversation? Do get angry at God when as you battle with your health or when your kids are rebellious? If these things are true of you, then I implore you to evaluate your heart, go to God in prayer and ask him to draw out these things. We are going to look at Christ’s response so I don’t want to unpack it now, but there is a direct correlation with how you view Christ and how you view God’s plan of redemption for you.

(c) Perhaps you view Christ more as a distant relative. You think that you have to do it all: that everything is up to you. Your times with Christ are like family get togethers where you “catch up.” You may not say it out loud, but you live your life without ever praying, without ever taking your concerns to Christ. Christ was the door to get in, but that’s all he was. Again, we wouldn’t say this out loud, but we live like it’s true. This view of Christ makes God’s plan of redemption seem like two sides of a river. He helps you into the water and helps you out, but you’re the one who has the thrash and fight to stay above the surface. Evidence of this can sometimes come out in conversations that we have with others. They may ask us how things have been going and we say that they have been going okay. And at some point in this conversation the dreaded question comes up: “Well, how is your prayer life?” You know that your pray life is non-existent. And if that is your answer you may see your issue with the distance that you feel with God, or maybe that ongoing struggle with that one sin that you can’t kick. Your life is evidence that you you are viewing Christ as distant and it is causing you to view God’s plan of redemption as a “start” and “finish”, but not an all encompassing reality.

If you find yourself in any of these camps of how you view Christ, then you probably have a wrong view of God’s plan of redemption.

The Disciples’ Response

Second, let’s look at the rest of the disciples’ response. Verse 50 says that they all fled. Now, I know that Peter could be lumped into this, but his response is specifically mentioned in the text and it is different than the rest of the disciples. For the rest of the disciples, their response was to flee. Like my stated fashion earlier, we are going to look at the “why” and then evaluate ourselves.

(1) Why did they flee? What about this scene would have caused them to flee? Why didn’t they respond like Peter responded? They did nothing when Peter attacked, and then fled. I think Peter was zealous for his Savior. He just had the wrong understanding of who Christ was. These disciples had a wrong understanding as well, but rather than being zealous, they were weak in their faith. It’s possible that they view Jesus as the conqueror of oppression or Rome or whatever, but their zeal was lack luster in comparison to Peter. These seem like people who were weak in their faith and fled when trouble came up, rather than being bold and associating themselves with their Savior. At least Peter came back and followed Jesus, but of course at a distance. They fled and I think that the naked guy fleeing in verses 51-52 shows the desperation of these disciples fleeing. The dude was more willing to run through town naked than to face what was about to take place. So, they fled.

(2) How does this relate to us? How does a weak faith show up in us?

(a) I think in times of awkwardness of our faith. Have you had a time when you had a chance to share your faith with someone else and you didn’t? Like, you knew that conversation was approaching that topic. They are talking about their family and occupation and what they care about, or maybe their are talking about a hard moment that they are going through in their lives and they are looking for hope. Or maybe they are talking about philosophy or some sort of moral issue in the topic of politics and you see the inviting door into a gospel conversation. It’s set up, but then you don’t swing. I think these moments reveal weakness in our faith. We aren’t as bold as we should be and so we flee when awkwardness comes or uncomfortability comes up.

(b) Or to paint weakness of faith in a different light, you struggle believing that Jesus can do what he says he could. Maybe you live with guilt over past sin. Maybe you’re fearful of your life and your health and if someone asked you if you believe that God is good, you would say “yes, but. . .” I think that these are moments of weak faith, like the father in Mark 9:24 who cried out to Jesus that he believed and pleaded that Jesus help his unbelief. If we aren’t careful, these subtle ways of weakness of faith can paralyze us. The can cause us to miss opportunities to showcase God’s plan to those around us. When our faith is weak, we need to increase our understanding of who our Savior is, and as our understanding of who he is increases, so will our faith. If these examples sound like you, then I urge you to read of Jesus Christ and increase in your understanding of who he is.

Jesus’s Response

Third, let’s look of Jesus’s Response. And I did look it up. According to the University of Northern Colorado, when someone’s name ends in an S you can show possession with an apostrophe ‘s’. So, it is Jesus, apostrophe ‘s’ response. Anyways, moving on. How did Jesus respond and why did he respond that way and how can we evaluate our lives in light of it?

(1) To really see the significance in how Jesus responded, we need to double dip back into last week’s Sunday evening sermon. Jesus was sorrowful and this sorrow was tied to the cup of God’s wrath for the sins of the world that he was to drink. Our Savior was in anguish and sorrow over this cup, and goes to the Father in prayer. At the end of his prayer, however, he is resolved for the Father’s will to take place. And notice the rapid succession of events after Jesus prays. Verse 41 says that Jesus came to his sleeping disciples a third time and asks them why they are sleeping. Verse 42 he tells them to rise because his betrayer is at hand. Verse 43, the first verse in our text tonight, says that “immediately” and “while he was still speaking” this crowd came up. Mark gives some background information regarding how Judas was going to signal who Jesus was in verse 44 and he did this “immediately” once he came in verse 45. Judas betrays him in verse 45 and in verse 46 they took Jesus and then in verses 48 and 49 Jesus accepts his fate because “the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” Jesus, who expressed his sorrow back in the previous passage, is now expressing faithful resolve to the will of the Father.

(a) How did Jesus respond? He responded by faithful submission to the will of the Father by obeying his word. The will of the Father is tied to the Word and Jesus was faithful to obey it. And notice the blessings that come from Jesus’s obedience. The nations are blessed because of the seed of Abraham. Jesus’s faithfulness in his response to the redemption plan of the Father brought salvation to the world. When we are obedient to the plan of God, others in our lives are blessed as well. Think of how many children have come to the faith because their parents were obedient? Or think of how many husbands or wives have come to faith because of their obedience of their spouses? Those of us who are believers today are so because someone around us or someone who influenced us was obedient to the plan of God. And this is all the more so if we are walking faithfully with him. Our faithfulness even after we are saved is often influenced by people that the Father brings into our lives who were faithful to the plan of God.

(b) Why did Jesus respond this way? What we see in the text is because Scripture needed to be fulfilled and the fulfillment was the will of the Father. This is the Son on whom the favor of the Father rested. This is the Son who does the will of the Father and is about his Father’s business. He knew Scripture. He knew that the sins of the mankind needed to be purged. Why did Jesus respond how he did? Because he was surrendered to and confident in the Father’s will.

(2) How are we to relate? First we need to have the right view of Christ. The consistent message that I hope you have been seeing is that having a poor understanding of Christ will affect the way that you view the redemption plan of God. In Mark’s gospel, he has been arguing throughout his entire book that Jesus is the Son of the God, the Messiah. He begins his book with Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This Jesus is the one of whom the Father is well pleased (Mark 1:11). He is the one whom the demons recognize as “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). He is the one who heals the sick (Mark 1:29-30). He is the one who stills the sea (Mark 4:35-40). And we could say much more in Mark’s gospel and the other gospels about Christ, but what Mark highlights is what the Roman centurion declared about him, that this man is the “Son of God.” (Mark 15:39). He is the one who comes to baptize us with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). This who Jesus is. If we view him rightly, then we will respond to God’s plan of redemption correctly.

And if you notice, it was Christ who responded rightly. Why was it only Christ? Because no one else could. Christ responded rightly for us to God’s plan of redemption, so now we can because he did for us and because the Spirit empowers us to do so. Isn’t this the Christian story? That we can now because Christ did? That we obey because Christ was obedient? He is not only our example, but he is our hero. He paved the way for us, but he is also the goal. We live for him so that we may look more like him in hope for the day that we will one day see him and be with him.

Bring it Home

To sum this up very simply, we are to view Christ rightly so that we might respond to God’s plan of redemption correctly. We do this by growing in our knowledge of who Christ is in the Word. Read of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.