The Battlefield or the Cross
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea: We are willing to go to the Battlefield, but not the cross.
Main Idea: We are willing to go to the Battlefield, but not the cross.
How do I see Jesus:
How do I see Jesus:
We talked about it a little bit last week, but we live in such a divisive time and that has gotten even more abrasive as the season of elections is upon us. Friends and neighbors who were once at least cordial have begun to look at each other with disdain. We know what people believe, we know what they think and we are more willing in this season to cause a little turmoil, maybe you’re a pot stirrer… and you like to get out the boat oar to start stirring the pot. I get it, its the season we are in. Most Christians in the country if you were to ask them would probably have some thoughts on how the country is slipping further and further from Jesus. Some might even wax eloquently about how we were founded as a christian nation and we need to get back to that place. They will tell you all the steps and they will be ready to go to battle for whatever the socioeconomic issue is they believe Jesus would rebuke. Their sword is always in their sheath, their hand is at the hilt and they are ready to draw whenever the time draws near. Whenever Jesus calls them to kill the issue. And today we find ourselves looking at a man who was much the same as us.
We give him a hard time sometimes, but Peter in a lot of ways represents some of us at different moments in our lives, sometimes we are proud and boastful, other times scorned and weak. But we have spent quite a few weeks around this moment in the upper room, where Jesus is sitting with his disciples and he is teaching and listening. He has told them that one would betray him, he has told them he would leave them and they couldn’t follow, he even spent some time telling them last week about this new commandment to love one another and telling them the example of how we are to love one another comes through the action on the cross. We are to love sacrificially, beyond ourselves, for others. And today our homie Peter picks up the story probably in the same way you and I would have had we been there.
You see as they sit there, we see they are not truly understanding what is important. And Peter, as is his custom speaks up first, and its evident the thing he has held onto is this idea of Jesus going to a place he cannot go. He may not have even heard that command to love one another because look at what he says.
36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”
37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
And this is truly an amazing moment, Peter is here bursting with pride. He, as the kiddies would say, is feeling himself, he is sure of his abilities. He’s telling Jesus, bro it doesn’t matter where you go I will be right there behind you. I can go wherever you want me you don’t have to worry about me Jesus I am with you. And what is certain in these moments as Peter is sitting in the upper room, before the crucifixion is Peter is thinking about Jesus overthrowing this Roman oppression. He is thinking Jesus is about to run into battle to setup his earthly kingdom and Peter is down for that. He is down to throw his life at the battlefield of life. And you can be sure this is what he has in mind look at the story we will see in John 18.
Judas has went out and sold Jesus out to the chief priests and officers, and he has brought them back to the garden to capture Jesus and this band of soldiers comes and they have weapons and torches. And they come toward Jesus and lets just read a little of the story from there:
4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”
5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.”
9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
So, just as Peter had told him, they showed up and this is what Peter had in mind when Jesus was talking. This fighting back against the powers that be, this going against the government and the things of the world, but he hasn’t been paying attention. He hasn’t been hearing everything Jesus has said. He hasn’t understood Jesus when he talks about how the glory of God will be displayed in the cross. And Jesus looks at him and says
11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
And Jesus is saying to him, for another time, Peter, put it away, this isn’t how we do this you have to understand I am doing everything my father called me to. Everything I have told you is going to happen, but that’s not the way we are going to do it. We are going to do it a totally different way.
So back to Jn 13, after Peter proclaims he will lay down his life for Jesus, what is Jesus response to peter?
38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
And we hear this and we think, how can it be that Jesus is telling him he won’t lay down his life for him? How is that even possible because we just saw scripture where it was clear Peter was willing to lay down his life for Jesus, the thing we have to remember is in that moment Peter was battlefield ready. He was ready to crush the enemy under his feet. And in that moment in the garden its almost as if Peter was the voice for William Wallace in braveheart, who said,
“Run and you'll live, at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!”
And he was ready to go to war, but Jesus has said you will deny me not once, but three times so lets look at that.
In Jn 18, Jesus is on trial in the courtyard of the high priest, and John and Peter have followed to see what is going to happen. John goes in and comes back to get Peter, and standing at the door to go in is a servant… and here is that exchange…
17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”
And the questioning of Jesus goes on and while that is happening we have the next two denials of Jesus by Peter…
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
And here we find Jesus was right. Peter was not willing to die for him and you think wait what about… and here is what we aren’t seeing. The whole time Jesus was teaching and showing them the way we live is through service. And the strongest method of that service is to lay down our lives. And here in this moment Jesus is being tried, and I think everyone around knows what may happen as he is being tried, there is a this great chance of him going to the cross. And in that moment with that in the background you know what Peter does? He tucks and runs. Where I am going you cannot go. He wasn’t ready for what he thought he was.
In the upper room, in the safety his upper room he had let his pride get in the way because he was sure of how it goes down. And I love what CS. Lewis says about pride.
“…the one vice of which no man in the world is free, which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and of which hardly any people (except Christians) ever imagine that they are guilty of themselves…There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.” CS Lewis
And we have to remember it was pride that was the downfall of Lucifer from Heaven. And it is the same pride that can brings us down. And you think well brother thats a great story, but what does any of this mess have to do with me? Well, I am glad you asked.
You and I can find ourselves just like Peter. We can be with Jesus in the battlefield but not go to the cross with Jesus. Still not following me?
Some of you like me are old enough to remember 9/11 and what happened in this country. There was this sense in the air everywhere collectively not of fear, but of melancholy, and there was this yearning for this higher power to save us. Churches became full for a while and people came together an prayed, and when we thought about the attackers we had some new music that came out. Toby Keith came out with a song even people who didn’t like country music loved… it said
… Oh, and justice will be served and the battle will rage
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
I can’t put the rest of it up there, because it curses, but we were ready to go to war. Those enemies came against this christian nation and we were going to wipe them out. But how many of us were willing to go and sit down with the people we felt like were behind this and share the gospel with them, really introduce them to Jesus. And I know what many people were thinking in that time, we WERE trying to introduce them to Jesus very fast… yes that may be so, but people were trying to get them to his judgment before they got him into their hearts. That’s the easy way… thats Peters way.
Maybe thats not you. Maybe you still hated country music even in that song. How many remember almost ten years ago on June 26, 2015 when the supreme court ruled that homosexuals have the same rights to marriage as straight people. And christians went to picket against it. They stood and held rallies and shouted horrible things. What if I told you, that method rarely changes peoples minds. Much like sharing political opinions on facebook it falls on deaf ears.
What if I said I understand people feel they are going to war for the things of God; good job Peter. And I know the pushback, Christians must certainly stand up for the things of God and biblical truths and there is no doubt about that. However, if we want to change people we are going to have to sacrifice ourselves for them. We have to give up our own desires for them. How many of us are willing to rush in and hug and love and be truthful and honest at the same time?
The same holds true when it comes to the abortion clinics, we are willing to stand outside and yell horrible awful things at the people going in, because we are going to war for truths, life is ending in those places. We are willing to go to war like Peter. But what if I told you that method rarely works, What if we looked at places like the pregnancy help center and what they are doing and realized the real way to help these women is to love them. TO help them and stand beside them, but that takes a huge step of faith it takes giving up ourselves.
Can you imagine a world where if instead of going to war, we went to the cross… finish this thought up.