ILLUSTRATION:
Have a rope to carry throughout the message. You may want to tie your own hands or the hands of some of the leaders of your church to illustrate how unfaithfulness limits their ministry. You also may want to tie the hands of someone in the audience and put a leader on them to show how we limit the degree we allow the Lord to work in our lives
INTRODUCTION
THE TIME
1. Jesus knowing of his impending betrayal and arrest comes to the garden
2. Judas knew right where to find Jesus (Jn.18:2) (Do you know where to find Jesus?)
3. Jesus identified himself to the approaching soldiers
4. Jesus makes no attempt to escape and offers no resistance
5. Jesus’ only request is that the disciples be allowed to go free (Jn.18:8)
6. When Peter draws his sword Jesus rebukes him (Jn.18:11)
7. Jesus even graciously restores the ear of Malchus (Lk.22:51)
8. All the disciples take the opportunity to flee
9. Yet it is said of the soldiers, “they laid hold on Jesus led him away” (Mt.26:57)
THE TREATMENT
1. Jesus is bound by the soldiers and led to Annas, the ex-high priest. (12-13)
2. Annas, sends Jesus bound to Caiphas the high priest (24)
3. Caiphas questions Him and finding no reason to condemn Him sends him bound the first thing the next morning to Pilate. (Mt.27:1-2)
4. Notice it was the enemies of Jesus who bound Him.
a. They bound him in order to render him helpless under their power
b. They bound him in order to render him harmless in their presence
c.The world doesn’t mind a non-threatening form of Jesus (II Tim.3:5)
THE TRUTH
1. He could have passed thru the midst of them and been gone as He did before
2. He could have called twelve legions of angels (Mt.26:52-53) “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
3. He could have by his word destroyed them all in a moment
a. It was not their fetters, but the cords of love which held Him prisoner
b. He was not bound against His will. He willingly allowed His hands bound.
c. It was not their power, but his own pity which drew him to the judgment hall
5. This was a literal binding of Jesus even after a mighty display of his power
6. There are many today who bind the hands of Jesus in a figurative sense.
THE TWIST
1. Strange that anyone would attempt to bind the hands of God
2. It is not the enemies of Jesus who have the power to bind him
3. Stranger that we can bind the only one who can set us free (Ps.116:16)
4. There are very few today who are not guilty of binding the hands of Jesus
5. Are we guilty of binding the hands of Jesus? If so, How Do We Bind (Tie) the Hands of Jesus?
I OUR UNBELIEF IN DEPENDING UPON HIM CAN BIND HIS HANDS
(Mt.13:58) “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. (Mk.6:5-6) “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.
1. We Tie His Hands In Salvation
2. We Tie His Hands From Supplying Our Needs In Prayer
3. We Tie His Hands From Strengthening Us in Our Times of Sorrow
II OUR UNFAITHFULNESS IN OUR DEVOTION TO HIM CAN BIND HIS HANDS
1. Our Attendance (Heb.10:25)(Jn.20:24)(Acts 13:44)
2. Our Giving (Lk.6:38)(Mal.3:10) Church, Buses, Missions,
3. Our Service Church, Sunday School, Bus, Youth,
Various groups and individual were guilty of binding the hands of Jesus
• The reaction of the Gadarenes (Mt.8:34)
• The reaction of the Israelites (Ps.78:41)
• The reaction of the Nazarenes (Mt.13:58)
• The reaction of Jerusalem (Lk.13:31-35)
• The reaction of us today (II Chr.7:14)
4. Our Testimony
5. Our Support to our Leaders
III OUR UNCONCERN IN DECLARING HIS MESSAGE CAN BIND HIS HANDS
1. God’s Desire (II Pet.3:9) What Jesus wants to do more than anything else
a. Emphasize “Any” = None (I Tim.2:4)
b. All kinds of people need to be saved
c. Everybody who needs to be saved is a sinner (Rm.5:8)(I Cor.6:9-11)
2. Our Delay (Jn.4:35) “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
3. Our Disobedience
(Mt.22:9) “Go ye therefore into the highways
(Mt.28:19) “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations
(Mk.16:15) “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
4. Our Disparity (20% of the church does 80% of the work)
There is no material rope in this world that can bind Jesus
Samson of old was bound time and again and broke the bands. But not even Jesus can break the bands of our unbelief, unfaithfulness, and unconcern
You can’t bind the hands of Jesus without binding your own hands
I’m looking at the most powerful people in this community because I’m looking at the people who have the power to either bind or loose teh hands of God
Have you tied the hands of Jesus in your life in some way?
Untie the hands of Jesus in your life
