Your Reaction Is Showing Part 2

Your reaction is showing part II.

John 18:1 -- 11.

This morning we mentioned that the true test of your character is not found in your actions but your reactions. We are looking at how Jesus reacted in some certain situations. We looked this morning at how Jesus reacted to the wrongs of a friend. That friend being Simon Peter. Peter loved the Lord but wronged him terribly when Jesus was arrested in the garden.

Tonight we will take off on yet another way Jesus reacted. He reacted to the wrongs of a friend by showing love. Let’s see how Jesus reacted to the wounds of a foe.

Turn to Luke 22:51. Here was a man named Malchus. Even though Malchus was a slave, he was part of that religious Mafia that had come to kill Jesus. Jesus was on their hit list. Yet Jesus healed the ear of Malchus when Peter cut it off. Why did Jesus heal him?

Turn to Matthew 5. You know it as the sermon on the Mount. I want you to see that Jesus practiced what he preached. We are talking about how to react to your enemy. Look at verse 10 through 12. That’s what was happening to Jesus. He was being persecuted for righteousness sake.

A true born again believe is going to be persecuted for two reasons. 1. We are going to the persecuted for the life we live. Now it may show you why. The word righteous means to divide, to be different. And this world doesn’t want you and me to be different. Now if you love the world and live like the world, the world will not hate you but love you. But, Jesus says this, "I have chosen you out of the world." We are different. We are children of the light. They are children of darkness. We are alive in the spirit. They are dead in their sins. We live by faith. They live by sight. They don’t understand us. We do understand them. We will rub them the wrong way. If we are living our lives for Jesus then we are going to be persecuted.

Not only the life we live, but the Lord we love. Notice again in verse 11. "For Jesus sake." Now you put those two things together, the life we live and the Lord we love and you are going to get in trouble with this world.

Have you noticed you can go to any civic club and mention God and no one will bother you? But you mention Jesus as being the only way. You pray in the name of Jesus and you will get in trouble. For my sake, Jesus said.

Now how did Jesus react to the wounds of his foes? He tells us out to react here in Matthew chapter 5.

Now listen, this will help you. If you are saved, then you are a kingdom person. Now if someone comes against you who is not a kingdom person and abuse you, hurt you, what are you today? Well, actually we know, don’t we? But let’s say I am mad and I want to get even. The first thing I have to do is to leave my throne as a kingdom person and come down. I come down to where he is, and now we are even. I am up here and he is down here. Do I really want to get even? You see there are three levels of life. There is the hellish level. That level returns evil for good. There is the human level. It returns good for good and evil for evil. Somebody gets me, I will get him. Somebody good to me, I will be good to him. That’s the human level. Then there is the heavenly level. That level returns good no matter the evil.

Jesus says we are to love our enemies. Did he do that when he healed the ear of Malchus? Sure he did. When Christians do good for evil, then people will start to believe we live what we preach.

Now the third thing I want us to see in this message is not only how Jesus reacted to the wrongs of a friend, and the wounds of a foe but the will of the father.

Turn back to John 18: 11. Now in that one verse, you have a cup and a sword. The sword stands for rebellion. The cup stands for submission. Before everyone of us there is a cup and a sword. The Devils says grab the sword. Jesus says drink the cup.

What was in that cup Jesus was about to drink? The wrongs of a friend. The wounds of a foe. Jesus said I will drank it because it is the will of the father.