Dealing With Evil the Messiah's Way
Text: Matt. 26:47-56
Introduction
1. Illustration: The attack [of Pearl Harbor] took place [December 7, 1941] on a sunny Sunday morning. A minimal contingent of soldiers was on duty at the time. Most offices on the base were closed and many servicemen were on leave for the weekend. New technology, including the new radar mounted on Opana Point, were in place, manned and functioning at the time of the attack. The incoming Japanese attack planes were detected by the radar and reported, but were mistaken for an incoming group of American planes due from the mainland that morning. While on practice maneuvers outside the harbor that morning, an American destroyer spotted a Japanese submarine attempting to sneak into the harbor. The submarine was fired upon, immediately reported — and ignored (www.U-S-history.com)
2. Despite these and many other warnings, Pearl Harbor faced great loss that day. The losses and ill preparedness came from one major cause…no one believed it could really happen.
3. We are in spiritual warfare. Sometimes we call it a bad day or blame it on mean people, but many times we are under heavy assault from the devil.
4. The question is, how are we going to deal with it?
5. Sometimes it will come from...
a. Unexpected Places
b. We can choose to combat in the natural
c. We can choose to combat it in the Spirit
6. Let's stand together as we read Matt. 26:46-57
Proposition: We need to deal with the enemy’s attacks the way Jesus did.
Transition: First we need to realize that they attacks can come from...
I. Unexpected Places (47-49).
A. One of the Twelve
1. There were two problems with Pearl Harbor.
a. We thought the relationship with Japan was friendly. In fact, during WWI we were allies.
b. We didn't think they would attack us.
2. This is a great illustration of what sometimes happens to us in the spiritual realm. Sometimes the devil uses those close to us when he attacks us.
3. This great truth is illustrated for us in the account of Jesus' arrest and betrayal.
4. Matthew tells us, "And even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests and elders of the people."
a. Judas left Jesus and the others during the Last Supper in the Upper Room to finish making arrangements for the betrayal.
b. The garden was a favorite meeting place for Jesus and the disciples, so Judas knows where to find him. He arrives with a large crowd of armed personnel.
c. Matthew highlights the treachery by referring to Judas as “one of the Twelve.”
d. This is insider betrayal, an unbelievable exploitation of a trusted relationship.
e. Judas was one of the twelve apostles, a disciple, a supposed follower of the Lord.
f. Just a few hours before, that very evening, he had been sitting at the table of the Lord eating bread with Him.
g. Now, ever so quickly, he had turned away and had actually taken the lead in betraying the Lord.
h. Because they are sent by prominent men of Jerusalem, the band that comes to arrest Jesus is probably the temple guard.
i. They come prepared for armed resistance from one they suppose is a messianic revolutionary (Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
j. The most heavily armed of those coming with Judas would be a contingent of Roman soldiers assigned by Pilate for temple security, who were authorized to carry swords (machairai), the short double-edged weapon used in hand-to-hand combat.
k. Levitical temple police and personal security guards of the chief priests and Sanhedrin carrying clubs also probably make up another large detachment in the arresting crowd.
l. They have been sent by the chief priests and the elders, the ones with whom Judas made arrangements for the betrayal; they represent the highest authority of the Jewish people and are endorsed by the Roman governor's own forces (Wilkins, NIV Application: Matthew).
5. Not only does Judas do an unspeakable betrayal of Jesus, but he also does it in an unspeakable way. Matthew tells us, "The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.”
a. A kiss was a sign of special affection among family members and close friends, or of a disciple’s honor and affection for his teacher.
b. Judas’s kiss is thus a special act of hypocrisy (cf.
c. Proverbs 27:6 (NLT)
Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
d. The word that is translated "with a kiss" actually comes from the root word in Greek which refers to brotherly love.
e. It emphasized even further the hypocrisy of Judas' actions. He took something that is supposed to stand for affection and devotion and made it an act of treachery and deceit.
f. Given ancient values concerning hospitality, friendship and covenant loyalty, any of Matthew’s readers encountering this story for the first time would have been horrified by the narration of the betrayal.
g. Judas appears as the most contemptible of traitors; Jesus appears as one unjustly betrayed (Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
6. But wait, it gets worse! What? How can it get any worse? Well Matthew tells us, "So Judas came straight to Jesus. “Greetings, Rabbi!” he exclaimed and gave him the kiss."
a. As if using a kiss to betray Jesus wasn't bad enough, Judas comes up to him and says "Greetings Rabbi."
b. Again the original language reveals the irony of Judas's statement. The word he uses is derived from the root which means "to rejoice."
c. So not only does he betray Jesus with a kiss, but he does it with a smile on his face.
d. Notice that he calls Jesus Rabbi rather than Lord, which the other disciples frequently used to refer to Jesus.
e. Everything that Judas said and did revealed his true character.
B. Friends and Relatives
1. Illustration: No treachery is worse than betrayal by a family member or friend. Julius Caesar knew such treachery. Among the conspirators who assassinated the Roman leader on March 15, 44 was Marcus Junius Brutus. Caesar not only trusted Brutus, he had favored him as a son. According to Roman historians, Caesar first resisted the onslaught of the assassins. But when he saw Brutus among them with his dagger drawn, Caesar ceased to struggle and, pulling the top part of his robe over his face, asked the famous question, "You too, Brutus?"
2. At the heart of betrayal is the desperateness of the human heart.
a. Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
b. The heart of betrayal is the fallenness of humanity.
c. The heart of betrayal is the sinfulness of the human heart.
d. The heart of betrayal is the selfishness and self-centeredness of the human condition.
3. Satan realizes this and uses it to his full advantage.
a. 2 Timothy 3:13 (NLT)
But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.
b. He realizes that we are fallen and he gets us to use it against each other.
c. He realizes the damage and destruction that happens when we are betrayed by someone close to us.
d. He knows that the best way to destroy fellowship and unity is from within.
e. If we are not careful he will use us as his tool of destruction.
4. If we are not careful Satan will use this to destroy us.
a. Hebrews 3:12-13 (NLT)
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
b. So many times over the years I have listened to stories of people who have been driven away from church by someone in the church.
c. Satan wants to use our fallenness, weakness, and emotions to destroy the Church and our lives.
d. If we are not careful he will use us as his tool to do his evil work.
Transition: Our first response, unfortunately, is to...
II. Combat It In the Natural (50-54).
A. Pulled Out His Sword
1. The first thing we do is to try and grit our teeth and do it on our own. This is also the worst thing we can do.
a. It is like trying to put out a four-alarm fire with a squirt gun.
b. It is like showing up to a gunfight with a pocketknife.
c. It is like asking the kicker to block a 350 lbs defensive tackle.
d. It just doesn't work!
2. We can see this in what happens next in our text. Matthew says, "Jesus said, “My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for.” Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. 51 But one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, slashing off his ear."
a. Jesus offered a relationship to Judas, but Judas abused and manipulated it to his own ends.
b. With a touch of sad irony Jesus says, "Friend, do what you came for."
c. The designation "friend" is found three times in Matthew. The preceding two times Jesus used it in parables to address a person who abused a privileged relationship.
d. Here Judas has violated the most privileged relationship with Jesus Messiah.
e. He has scorned and taken advantage of the love and friendship Jesus extended to him.
f. Judas manipulates friends and enemies to advance his goals, but within the deception Jesus maintains control of his own destiny to reconcile friends and enemies to God and to each other (Wilkins).
g. But one of his disciples decides to take matters in his own hands.
h. One of Jesus' disciples, whom John tells us is Simon Peter, tries to defend Jesus by taking the sword he is carrying (machaira, the same kind as the arresting troops) and striking Malchus, the high priest's servant. But he only grazes him, cutting off his ear.
i. Peter drew his sword because he has so many times expressed his devotion to Jesus; he truly believed he was willing to die for Jesus, and now tries to prove it.
j. It is also possible that he had remembered some of the teaching of other rabbi's who taught that the Messiah couldn’t die, but he would conquer his enemies and proclaim himself as king.
k. Peter, in the heat of the moment, might have thought this was Jesus time to over throw his enemies (Horton, 593).
3. But Jesus tells Peter, “Put away your sword, those who use the sword will die by the sword."
a. The way of the world is to assert its will on others through human power, even violence, and the way of the world is to retaliate against violence with violence.
b. The inevitable consequence of championing violence is often one's own violent end.
c. Jesus is not giving a blanket endorsement of pacifism, which would require more scriptural support than this one saying.
d. But he does reject the notion that God's will is advanced or should be imposed on others through violent means (Wilkins).
4. Jesus then points out to him the truth of the situation when he says, "Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?"
a. Legions normally had six thousand soldiers, so Jesus is saying that he could summon around seventy-two thousand angels (a legion per disciple).
b. A human force of this size could have easily crushed the whole temple guard and the Roman garrison in the fortress Antonia; such an angelic force could have easily defeated any human army raised against them.
c. God’s heavenly armies occasionally appear in the Old Testament, and they were invincible (Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
d. The number may have symbolic value, but more importantly points to the enormous resources at Jesus' disposal.
e. Circumstances may indicate that Jesus' mission is thwarted, but events are not out of control (Wilkins).
5. Jesus then reminds Peter, that no matter how things may appear, he is in complete control of the situation. He tells him, "But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”
a. Jesus has come to carry out God's plan of redemption as prophesied in "the Scriptures."
b. Jesus does not point to a particular prophetic passage here but to the Scriptures as a whole that indicate the purpose of his earthly ministry, which "must" (dei) lead him to the cross. This is "divine necessity."
c. As was the point in the prayers at Gethsemane, obedience to the Father's will for his life is Jesus' ultimate desire, not pursuing his own will (Wilkins).
d. Fighting it in the flesh was not going to accomplish anything; there is a better way.
B. In the Flesh
1. Illustration: Several years ago, Tina and I went to visit the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, PA. While there we visited the spot where Pickett's Charge began. As we looked out on that open field and looked up at the heights filled with cannons and muskets held in the hands of experienced troops, that lay before those brave men, I couldn't help but think to myself, "General Lee, you were nuts!" The same is true of us when we try and fight a spiritual battle with physical force.
2. We face a formidable foe - Satan!
a. 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
b. He is power, crafty, and experienced.
c. He will come at you when you least expect it.
d. He knows your every weakness even more so than you know them yourself.
e. His objective is to destroy you!
3. Fighting him on our own is foolish!
a. Acts 19:15-16 (NLT)
But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.
b. The sons of Sceva made the mistake of thinking that spiritual warfare was a matter of mastering the right sayings, rituals, or order of service.
c. Spiritual warfare is just that - spiritual!
d. You cannot manage it through physical means or fleshly endeavors.
e. The only way you can fight an unholy spirit is with the Holy Spirit!
Transition: So the only solution is to...
III. Combat It In the Spirit (55-56).
A. To Fulfill
1. The point that Jesus has been trying to make is that if he had wanted to fight this battle in the flesh he could have done so.
a. He could have had an army, a heavenly army, at the snap of his fingers.
b. He could have called down fire from heaven if he had wanted.
c. But for him there was a better way and a higher purpose.
2. He said to those who came to arrest him, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there teaching every day."
a. Jesus mocks the contingent that has come out so heavily armed to arrest him, for he has been within their reach in the temple precincts teaching throughout the week.
b. His teaching has been an obvious threat to the authority of the religious establishment.
c. They could not counter that teaching since they had no answer for his divinely authoritative words.
d. Yet they could not arrest him for fear of Jesus' popularity with the crowds, so they come out to arrest him with the only power that they can muster - swords and clubs under the cowardly cover of night (Wilkins).
e. Jesus knew that they were like blind people led by blind guides.
f. The reason they were there was because the religious leaders had sent them to do their dirty work.
3. However, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter when he says, "But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures.”
a. Jesus declares to these representatives of the religious authorities that God has ordained their deception long ago.
b. In "the words of the prophets," an expression found only here in the New Testament, God's spokespersons predicted their wickedness (Wilkins).
c. The problem was that neither these people nor the religious leaders had a clue what the Scriptures taught.
d. Had they actually paid attention when Jesus was teaching in the temple they would have known that what was about to happen had to happen.
e. They didn't realize that if only two or three of them had come without weapons to seize Jesus he still would have gone with them.
f. Jesus was not going to resist them because he was willingly laying his life down as a ransom for many (Horton, 597).
g. He was going to win the battle on the cross, but he wasn't going to do it the flesh, only in the Spirit.
B. Spiritual Battle
1. Illustration: The largest church in the world is David Yonngi Cho’s church in South Korea which numbers over 800,000 people. It is know for it’s "Power Evangelism model of prayer and miracles." He adds, "Healing has always played a major role in Cho’s church. Spiritual warfare through prayer has also been a key factor in the success of this church"
2. We win the battle by spending time in God's presence.
a. James 4:7 (NLT)
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
b. We only win by humbling ourselves before God in prayer.
c. We only win by being daily in the presence of God.
d. We only win we seek His face and ask for His help.
3. We win the battle when we fight with the right ammunition.
a. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NLT)
We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
b. To win a spiritual battle you have to fight with spiritual means.
c. To win a spiritual battle you have to fight with a power greater than the one you are fighting against.
d. You need a power to which there is no equal.
e. You need a power that cannot and will not be defeated.
f. You need the power of an almighty and all-powerful God!
4. We win the battle when we fight with a superior weapon.
a. Ephesians 6:17-18 (NLT)
Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
b. There are three weapons that cannot be defeated.
c. Our salvation makes us a member of the army of God. It is the largest and most powerful army in the world, and your salvation is your enlistment papers.
d. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is our battle plan. With it you what to do and when to do it. With it you cannot lose; without it you cannot win.
e. Praying in the Spirit is your secret weapon. It is a spiritual language that only God understands. The devil can't fight what he cannot understand. When you have done everything else pray in the Spirit!
Conclusion
1. We are in spiritual warfare. Sometimes we call it a bad day or blame it on mean people, but many times we are under heavy assault from the devil.
2. Sometimes it will come from...
a. Unexpected Places
b. We can choose to combat in the natural
c. We can choose to combat it in the Spirit
3. Tired of fighting in your own strength?
4. Tired of fighting with everything you've got but it's never enough?
5. Maybe you need to change your tactics?
