Sermon: Jesus, Weapons, & War

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of the living and the true God. While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

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Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, The one I will kiss is the man.

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Seize him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, Greetings, Rabbi.

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And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, Friend, do what you have come to do.

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Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

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Then Jesus said to him, Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

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But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? At that hour

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Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me?

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Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.

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But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

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Then all the disciples left him and fled. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as a church.

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Lord, we come into your presence as the people that you've called out of darkness and you've brought into light.

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You've saved us. And Lord, we enter right now into ground that is holy.

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Lord, you have told us this story with your very words breathed out by you in order to instruct us, to train us, to equip us, to embolden us, to renew us, to heal us.

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And Lord, we're learning, Lord Jesus, about your glory and that all of this was for your people.

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All of this was you laying down your life for the unworthy. And Lord, we give you glory.

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We give you praise. Please guide this message today by your Spirit.

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Teach your people. Do what I cannot do as a mere man. We pray that,

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Lord, together as your people that we be changed by the word of God today and that everyone would be able to forget the teacher and remember

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Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. So context for a moment.

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Let's back up for a second. We have the Lord Jesus in the gospel according to Matthew telling his disciples repeatedly, actually, that he's going to Jerusalem.

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He's going to be crucified. He's going to die. He's going to rise again. We have, of course, the message of the Lord Jesus of why he's come.

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He's the Savior. He's coming to redeem, to forgive. They know the whole story. The background is behind them.

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The word of God was laid down long before the ministry of Jesus. They know the story of the Mashiach.

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He's coming into the world to draw the nations up to God's mountain, to save every tribe, tongue, people, nation, and language, bring people out of every nation to God, to bring salvation.

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He's, of course, going to die for the sins of God's people. He's going to rise again from the dead. He's going to establish justice.

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That's all behind us. And then Jesus, Matthew understands very clearly that Jesus is that promised

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Messiah. He is the one who is the King. He is the one who is bringing the rule of God into the world.

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And Jesus, now up to this point, has told his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem.

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Now, we know, of course, in the teaching of Jesus, he tells people, you don't have authority over me except that which is given to you by God.

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In the gospels themselves, you see that Jesus actually, numerous times, gets himself into trouble.

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They actually are trying to trip him up. It happens shortly before Matthew 26. You see them, in his indictment upon the religious leadership of Jerusalem, you see them trying to trip

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Jesus up. They're trying to get him. And what's interesting is that throughout the gospels, you see that they actually do try to kill

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Jesus. He calls himself Egoemi. He takes the divine name of God upon himself.

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He says to people, unless you believe John chapter 8, Egoemi, I am, you will die in your sins.

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He took the prerogatives of God. He displayed that he was divine. He controlled creation. He healed the sick.

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He raised the dead. He had the righteous and blameless life that was unparalleled in history and will always remain so.

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And Jesus, he indicts them. He, at times, challenges them, and they want to kill

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Jesus. Notice that and mark it down. There were times in Jesus' ministry where they did try to kill

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Jesus. They wanted his life. As a matter of fact, he raises Lazarus from the dead, and their response is, kill him and maybe kill

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Lazarus too. And now you have this moment where the betrayer comes in.

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And notice I remarked on this in the past. It is interesting, Dr. MacArthur points this out, that throughout the gospels, you have this constant repetition.

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It's like they just cannot seem to get over the fact that it was Judas, one of the twelve, the betrayer, the one who betrayed him.

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They keep repeating that alongside Judas' name, the one who betrayed him, one of the twelve. Can you believe it?

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Judas now has concocted this awful plan. He is not saved.

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He doesn't know Jesus. He didn't believe in Christ and was saved and then fell away. He was always the son of perdition.

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He was always the one who God had determined to allow him to betray Jesus. That's part of the story.

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And Judas has concocted this plan before even the Lord's supper is given to them. He makes a deal with darkness.

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He makes a deal with darkness to betray the son of man with 30 or 430 pieces of silver.

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And so he enters into the Lord's supper with his plan already concocted. He's already going to deliver

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Jesus over to the authorities. He sits at the table with Jesus in a very intimate setting.

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And of course, then Satan fills Judas. Jesus gives Judas permission to go and betray him.

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He leaves now. He's out. Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and this is an intense moment.

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It's not just an intense moment because Jesus, of course, he knows what he's about to endure.

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He's not just going to be tortured. He's not just going to be crucified. That's bad enough as it is.

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And I would venture to say none of us have that kind of courage in just that point. To have your beard pulled from your face, to have a crown of thorns smashed into your head, for you to be beaten and tortured, hit with a cat of nine tails, have your back opened up, organs probably exposed, crucified, suffering, suffocating, dying.

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But Jesus knows he's going to receive the wrath of God in the place of his people. Jesus is doing something in the

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Garden that displays something to us, that he is what Adam was supposed to be. Our story starts with our first parents.

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I don't care where you're from. I don't care your history. I don't care your color. Doesn't matter. We all go back to the same parents and the same failure from the very beginning.

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Adam was called to do something before God, to be his image, to be his light in the world. And he sinned with a high hand against God.

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God said this but not that and Adam just does the opposite. He sins against God and of course he's punished and God promises to send

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Jesus in Genesis chapter 3. That's where the story starts though, but Adam was supposed to be the image of God in God's world, in God's Garden, and was supposed to obey

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God. He fails. Jesus goes to the Garden and where there is temptation, Jesus has victory.

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Everywhere that Adam fails, Jesus succeeds. Everywhere that Israel fails, Jesus succeeds.

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And so Jesus of course, he goes into that intense trial in the Garden and he comes out with victory and of course as he comes out, his disciples can't even hang.

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They can't even stay awake to pray for a little bit. But it's darkness. It's night.

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And of course the betrayer now is at hand and that's where this story is opening up, right there at that point.

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But what's interesting here is that Judas of course picks the time where he is under the cover of darkness.

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Now I want you to consider now the background for a moment. A lot of us, maybe we just don't, we're maybe city folks, right?

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We're city folk and we don't really understand what it's like out there in the world in the darkness, just how dark things can get.

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Judas picks a particular time where he knows where Jesus is going to be. Jesus had been there before.

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It was a place where they went to relax and to recharge and to meditate and to hang out.

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Judas knows he's going to be there and of course Judas brings hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people to get

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Jesus. These are soldiers with swords. These are temple police with clubs.

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And so this is a massive crowd. A massive crowd.

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Jesus was considered a disruptor. He was considered a troublemaker. He's the one that goes into the temple.

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He cleanses it twice. He's the one driving people out of God's temple like he has the authority to do so.

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He did. And Jesus of course was hated by the religious establishment but it's because he calls out their hypocrisy and they're missing the point.

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He is God's chosen one. He's the promised one. They're supposed to put their faith in him.

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And now they're coming with Roman soldiers and temple police, clubs, swords and all.

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And of course Judas comes under the cover of darkness. Judas knew where Jesus would be.

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Judas had seen Jesus escape from the mobs before. Remember that. It's interesting because Judas makes a special arrangement.

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You see in the text, the one that I kiss, that's the one. Why would Jesus, sorry

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Judas, make it a point to say make sure you get the one that I kiss? Because Judas is so infected with evil, darkness and Satan that he does not want

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Jesus to get away. He's seen Jesus get away before.

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You read in the Gospels again you see they pick up stones to kill Jesus. They can't do it. Jesus would say something that would trouble him and he would slip out of the crowd.

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There are mobs that have tried to get Jesus before but they couldn't. And these are mobs.

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There's a lot of people and Jesus somehow slips out. Jesus somehow gets out of it.

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That's happened before. Judas has seen that. Also it's darkness. Maybe Judas doesn't want

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Jesus to slip out in the darkness, under cover of darkness and to get away safely. Maybe they're afraid that somebody will pretend to be

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Jesus and they'll get the wrong guy. It is dark. And so Judas says the one that I kiss.

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Sees the one that I kiss. So he arranges a deceitful, affectionate kiss to make double sure that Jesus doesn't escape.

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Now when you look at the text in Matthew, what's glorious about the Gospels is some Gospels, well one

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Gospel will have one particular emphasis. Say for example Matthew, he clearly knows the Old Testament.

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He's clearly, he's bringing his Gospel together toward the understanding that's a

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Jewish understanding of the Scriptures. It's expectation and fulfillment. He knows the Word of God. He knows his

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Bible and so it's a very Jewish Gospel. Luke's a little more Gentile where Luke will actually take something that Matthew says that's very

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Jewish and you've got to have the Jewish understanding of the Bible. He'll take it and actually say for example

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Matthew 24, Jesus says when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet, then know that his desolation is near, flee.

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Well in Luke 21, Luke takes that and he says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee.

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So you have Luke actually giving sort of the Gentile spin, right? He's giving like the easy summary for the

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Gentile who doesn't know maybe the Jewish Scriptures. So you have the Gospels will give you maybe in one

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Gospel more details than the other one depending on the audience. Well if you read this text, you'll see that we have

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Judas coming, kissing Jesus and Jesus said to him, friend do what you have come to do.

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But in Luke's Gospel, we get a little more detail of some of the stuff that was said.

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You know that the Bible doesn't record every detail, every word that was said or every action that was taken in a particular instance like for example,

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I'll throw this out there, something I've been thinking about a lot this week. We're going to talk about this in a moment. Jesus says

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I am, they all fall down. He heals the guy's ear that came off and somehow we don't have the conversation of the mob about like on the way on the way to the trial, what were those conversations like, right?

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What are we doing, right? I mean right, you just see a guy like knock down crowds of maybe a thousand people.

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You see Jesus like healing, giving a guy an ear back and we don't have their conversation.

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What was that like? I would love to have hung out in that crowd and just listened to what they were saying. It would have been interesting.

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But in John, sorry Luke, Luke 22, go to Luke 22, we have something

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I think that expresses the pain of this moment.

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You gotta stop thinking of Jesus as sort of like hovering around Jerusalem. Jesus bled.

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Jesus was hungry. Jesus was thirsty. Jesus felt hurt.

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And in Luke 22, you get a little more detail. Verse 48, it says, but Jesus said to him, this is to Judas when he kisses him, but Jesus said to him,

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Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?

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The construction actually in the text itself in the Greek, there's emphasis on the kiss in terms of how it was given.

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A lot of emphasis in terms of this very affectionate kiss. It wasn't like a peck.

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This is the guy like that. This was something that was theater. It was theater.

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It was to show the mob who's the guy. He can't get away. Make sure you get the right guy.

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But it was theater for the disciples and for Jesus. Theater. Pretending affection for Jesus.

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Such wicked, deceitful affection. So he arranges this and makes double sure that Jesus can't escape.

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But as we go on, notice in Matthew 26, verses 50 through 52,

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Jesus said to him, friend, do what you came to do. Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

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And behold, one of those who are with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

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Then Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Or some translations say all who live by the sword will die by the sword. Now what's interesting is that in Matthew's gospel,

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Matthew leaves out the name of the guy who cut off the ear.

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He just says, this guy pulled out a sword, cut off the ear, lops his ear off, and then Jesus confronts the guy.

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So who did it? Well, we know who did it. In John chapter 18,

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John actually gives a little more detail. He apparently didn't have a problem throwing Peter under the bus. Hey, just so you all know, that was

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Peter. And if you look at Peter's history, his past, I mean, it kind of makes sense, right?

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I mean, you'd say, all right, that makes, I get it, Peter. But in John chapter 18, we not only learned that it was

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Peter, but we learned the name of the servant that got his ear cut off.

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I don't know about that trade -off, personally. Lose the ear and you get your name written in the Bible in perpetuity, like forever, right?

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I don't know. Kind of hurt, but it'd be kind of cool to get it back on again. That'd be a story for the grandkids, right?

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It was off, then it was on. I can hear again. But his name was

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Malchus. He was the servant of the high priest of Caiaphas. So he's an important character.

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And Peter is the one who actually cut his ear off. Now, what's interesting here is that Peter, mark it down, has a sword.

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He's got a sword, and we're going to ask a question, where did he get that from? But he has a sword and he goes swinging from Malchus's head.

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He's obviously not trying to take an ear. Peter was trying to kill this person.

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He's trying to kill him. But somehow he misses, Malchus, you know, bobs and weaves or whatever, but he gets out of the way and his ear comes off.

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O -F -F. Off. Peter cut his ear off. So three points about Peter and cutting off someone's ear.

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Number one, first point, Peter doesn't get it. Is that obvious by now at this point of the story?

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Now, Peter had a glorious end to his life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was restored. He knew why he was trusting in Christ.

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That much is clear from the text. He was a true believer, but like us, he's a failure. Don't judge Peter, because you and I have got a lot of Peter in us.

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But Peter just doesn't seem to get it. At this point of the story, he still doesn't get it.

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It's not the first time. Now, he's lopping somebody's ear off right now when Jesus is saying, this is foreordained.

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This is what I've come for. This is going to happen. It's guaranteed. Peter doesn't get it. He argued before in this same gospel with Jesus about the atonement.

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Keep a finger in 26. Go to 16. In Matthew 16, verse 21, it says, from that time,

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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.

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And on the third day, be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, rebuking

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God. Wow, brazen.

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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.

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But he turned, that's Jesus, and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

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You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

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So we know that's a correction to Peter before. From the Lord Jesus, you are not focusing on what

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God wants. You're focusing on the things of man. And Jesus gets behind the motivating force behind Peter in that moment.

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He seems so caring. He seems so loving. I'm going to stop you from being murdered, Jesus. And Jesus says, get behind me,

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Satan. I know where this is coming from. I know where this influence is coming from, and I'm not listening to it.

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Get behind me, Satan. So Peter's confronted because Jesus tells him, I've come for this purpose, this is going to happen.

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And Peter's like, never! It's never going to happen. You're not going to die, Jesus, even though he's come to die.

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The text in the Old Testament says that he was going to be cut off for the sins of God, people. And here's Peter trying to get in the way, thinking he's being his friend.

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He's standing in the way of what God is doing with the Lord Jesus. So first point is Peter doesn't get it.

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He didn't before. He isn't right here. And number two, Peter obviously felt he had something to prove.

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Stop there for a second. Think about Peter's experience. Peter's a follower of the Lord Jesus. He loves Jesus. He's a true believer.

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He's not like Judas. He doesn't have ulterior motives for ministry. He's coming to Jesus for eternal life.

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He knows what Jesus is for. And he trusts him. He's a real believer. He's preserved by God in that respect.

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But Peter obviously felt that he had something to prove. He didn't trust in Jesus' settled promise about him.

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That's Jesus' promise about Peter. What did Jesus just say in Matthew 26, 30 through 35?

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What did he say? He says to Peter what? That you are going to deny me.

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Now, here's the deal with Jesus. If he says something, that's it. We all need to learn from that, whether it's uncomfortable or not.

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I may not like stuff in the Bible. It doesn't matter. I'm not apologizing for God. He's the truth.

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I'm not. I'm a creature. And Jesus may say things to you and I in our lives.

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He may direct us places that are uncomfortable, things that seem to go against what we want. We have a certain plan in place and he's saying something differently.

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But here's the point. If he says it, we should just submit and be humble and yield because he's

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God and he loves us. And everything that he does is for his glory and our good.

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Now, Peter doesn't get it. He doesn't get it because Peter felt that he had something to prove.

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Jesus says you're going to deny me. What did Peter think was going to happen? Think about it for a moment now. Jesus says you're going to deny me three times.

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What did Peter think was going to happen? That Jesus was going to be found out to be a liar? That he was going to have a false prophecy?

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I mean, I think what we all have to recognize is if God becomes a man and says, I control everything. I'm the sovereign and here's what's going to happen by the end of the night with you.

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All of us should spend that time in meditation and respect and humility and wait. But Peter doesn't get it.

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He doesn't get why Jesus has come at this moment. He's not understanding the context. And in this moment, he has something obviously that he feels like he has to prove.

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Jesus said in front of everybody, you're going to deny me three times. And now

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Peter's lopping someone's ear off. Why? Obviously, he felt like he had something to prove.

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I'll prove Jesus wrong. Weird. But the third point is that Peter, listen, because this is where you have to show

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Peter some mercy. Give him some grace. Peter was obviously emboldened. Turn in your

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Bibles to John chapter 18. John gives us a little more detail, again with Malchus and that it was

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Peter who did it. But in John chapter 18, we learn about a pretty spectacular moment that took place at the moment of the betrayal.

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Now, you've got to stop for a second because I've really had to challenge myself on this. I've read this text so many times and I don't think

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I've really let the scene actually impact me. At times, you know, we just sort of read something amazing in the

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Bible. It just goes right over our heads. We stop thinking about the power of this moment.

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So Jesus now, people speculate, maybe a thousand people, swords and clubs.

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It is a huge crowd and a limited number of disciples. They can't fight back from a human perspective.

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This looks like there's no way out. This looks like the crowd has the power. They are from the authorities.

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Put it in a modern, this is the thin blue line coming to do their duty. They've got the power.

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They're the authorities. And these are just lowly nothings. They're peasants.

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Who are they in the face of all this power and authority? And so they show up to get

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Jesus. And here's what happens that is unbelievable. It says, verse 1, when

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Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

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Now Judas, who betrayed him, there it is again, see? So they can't stop mentioning it. Judas, the one who betrayed him, also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples.

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So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

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Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek?

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They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, Egoemi.

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He's quoting the Tetragrammaton. He's quoting the name of Yahweh. That's God's name.

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They knew it. And Jesus here is being expressed to us that Jesus is quoting the name of Yahweh.

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I am. And what's amazing is

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Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them when Jesus said to them, Egoemi. They drew back and fell to the ground.

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Can you imagine the scene for a second? I think oftentimes we've sort of neglected the details and how this all really looked at nighttime.

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A thousand people possibly. Clubs and swords, lanterns, fire coming into where Jesus is in the garden.

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And here is lowly Jesus that couldn't possibly fight back. Jesus of Nazarene and this massive crowd of authorities with power and weapons, standing before Jesus with his betrayer.

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They come up and Jesus says, Egoemi. And they fell.

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What was the sound of maybe a thousand people falling to the ground? What was that like?

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It's a powerful scene if you think about it. It's just sort of just mentioned like, I'd like some more details on this.

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Like, I am. And they all fell down. But they drew back and fell to the ground.

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So he asked them again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered,

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I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go.

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So Peter's obviously emboldened. Give him a break. Give him a break. He knows who

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Jesus is. He knows what he's, he knows what he can do. And now Jesus says to this crowd of maybe a thousand people,

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Egoemi, I am. The creator talks to the creatures who are trying to betray him and kill him.

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And they recognize the voice of their creator in that moment. Jesus is displaying you don't really have the power here.

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So he says, I am. And the crowd falls to the ground. Now, again, mercy for Peter.

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Is this obviously emboldened him? So he was like, oh, it's on. It's on.

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Because what's he probably thinking? I'll pull out my sword. We can get to fighting. And all

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Jesus has to do is wipe these people out. He just made them fall down with a word.

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And so he lops off Malchus's ear. But I have questions.

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And the question that comes up, because this is often, this text is often used to abuse, I think, much of the

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Bible and even Christians who actually hold the scripture in God's righteous law word regarding self -defense and weapons and all of that.

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People will say things like what Jesus is teaching here, a form of Christian pacifism. He's sort of doing away with all that other old stuff.

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And Jesus is stopping Peter here. I have questions. We should ask the question, where did

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Peter get the sword? Where'd he get it? He's got it.

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It's sheathed up. He's carrying it around. It's kind of hard to hide a sword. Just so you know.

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Right? Like right now and every Sunday, this church is filled with men who are all packing.

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Amen? And you usually don't even know it. Like right now,

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I'm packing. Amen. Sometimes guys come in here and they open carry and you'll see the gun, right?

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It's kind of obvious, but it's small. Maybe you'll miss it. Can't really see it if he's turned the wrong way. Or maybe they're concealed carrying a weapon.

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Can't really see it. You wouldn't know. But in this case, he's carrying a sword. Jesus knows that he has it.

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Where'd he get it? Let's look at the Bible. Go to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22.

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To understand when Jesus says in Matthew 26, those who live by the sword die by the sword.

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What is Jesus teaching us there? We need to see what Luke says in his gospel from the mouth of the

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Lord Jesus. Now, if you're in Luke 22, I just want to point you to 35. That's what we're going to start reading.

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But I want you to notice for a minute in your Bible, if you haven't in front of you, notice where this story is placed in the ministry of Jesus.

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Where is it taking place? It's taking place after the Lord's Supper.

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So listen, this moment I'm going to read to you regarding a sword and the Lord Jesus takes place in Luke's gospel after Judas makes a deal with the devil, after the

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Lord's Supper. This is taking place in the middle of the scene between the Lord's Supper and the betrayal of Jesus.

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So this part about the sword is in Luke's gospel, again, just before the betrayal of the

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Lord Jesus. And here's what it says in 35. And he said to them, this is Jesus now, when

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I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?

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They said nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it and likewise a knapsack and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

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For I tell you that the scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors for what is written about me has its fulfillment.

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And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, it's enough.

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So before Jesus had a particular mission for his disciples where he would send them out kind of naked, not literally naked, but they didn't really, it was all trust.

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It was all providence. They're going into places preaching the gospel and they've got nothing. All they can do is depend upon God and his providence.

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Jesus sends them out in a particular way for that mission. And here after the Lord's Supper, he tells them before I sent you out like this, now don't do that.

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Now bring what you need with you. And now because of where you're going, because of what's going to happen, buy a weapon so that you can defend yourself.

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That's what Jesus said. This isn't, listen,

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I gotta say this. This isn't about America. It's not.

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It's not. These truths are true and they go everywhere because they're the truth.

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I don't care what nation you're in. I don't care what country you're in. I don't care what your political group is. That is irrelevant to what the text says.

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We are opening up the word of God, letting Jesus speak. So Peter is carrying a sword during the betrayal.

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He has it. Jesus hasn't told him to put it away and get rid of it. What are you doing? How dare you have a sword?

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He told him to bring it. Jesus tells his followers, I'm going to send you out in a different way now.

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Make sure that can protect yourselves. Buy a sword. Buy a sword. And they're like, look, we found two.

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That's where the sword came from. Why? Because Jesus talked to them about having a sword.

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The problem was not with the sword. The problem was with how Peter was using the sword.

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It was what he was doing with it. So he gets the sword because he was encouraged by Jesus to get a weapon.

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So some notes on this. Note that Luke's gospel puts this story after the

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Lord's Supper and after the prophecy of Peter's denial. Lord's Supper, Peter's denial, and we've got now the sword.

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Note that Jesus tells them to buy a weapon to defend themselves. That's from the word of Jesus.

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Note that Jesus never chastised Peter for carrying around the sword that he told him to have.

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He didn't even tell him to get rid of it after he failed in killing

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Malchus and taking an ear with him. He told him to put it back in its sheath, not to get rid of the weapon.

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How dare you? We're pacifists. We don't have weapons. We're not doing self -defense. He says put the sword back in its sheath.

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The problem here isn't with the weapon. It's not with the weapon.

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It's not with the sword. Jesus isn't changing God's law of love regarding self -defense.

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The problem is with Peter's use of the weapon. God's kingdom doesn't spread through physical violence.

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I'll say that again. God's kingdom and his gospel does not spread through physical violence.

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Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. Now, pause, because that is another one of the most abused verses in the entire

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New Testament. And it's abused by, I think, well -meaning, well -intentioned,

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Jesus -loving people. They'll say things like Jesus says my kingdom's not of this world, so we're not to really have anything to do with the world.

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We're not to influence the world, care about what happens in the world. We just need to hope for the rapture to get out of here, leave our undies behind, and be on the clouds forever.

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You know, I'm teasing, but barely. Barely. And people will take a text like this, where Jesus says in John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world, and they'll have it mean, out of context, my kingdom is not in this world.

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But what is kingdom in Scripture? It's the rule of God. It's the rule of Jesus. Do we really think that Jesus is saying my rule is not in this world?

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Didn't he tell us to pray a little bit differently than that? I mean, doesn't he tell us to pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

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Do we really think Jesus was saying that his kingdom has nothing to do with this world? If you read the rest of the verse and let

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God's Word speak in John 18, 36, he actually says my kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my servants would fight.

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It's not like your kingdom. It's not like your kingdom, Pilate. It's not like your kingdom, Russia.

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It's not like your kingdom, China, where you advance your kingdom through violence and the sword and threat.

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Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. It's not like the world advances its kingdoms, otherwise his servants would have been fighting.

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That's not the kind of rule that Jesus unleashes into the world. But, next point.

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Is this the problem with these devices? Is that, there you go, okay. I'm trying to get away from my paper and use this special little thing that's called remarkable and it's not so.

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Go to Matthew 26 now. 26, 52. Again, then

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Jesus said to him, put your sword back into its place for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

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Now, I want to first say this, that many commentators, and I do agree with them, have actually said if you look at what

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Jesus is saying here and take into the whole counsel of God and you really take this in context, that Jesus actually here is a the death penalty.

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He's affirming the death penalty, the judicial death penalty, because what happens is

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Peter is not supposed to be doing this. He takes a swing at a guy to kill the guy and takes his ear off.

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Jesus is challenging him. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. What sword? The sword of justice.

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If you murder a guy, you deserve to have your life taken. Jesus isn't here teaching pacifism.

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He's actually, once again, exalting and upholding the word, the law, word of God. Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

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That's the consequence of murdering Malchus. Jesus isn't telling people not to use weapons.

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Otherwise, he's talking out of both sides of his mouth because he just told his followers to buy a sword.

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People have used this particular text to subvert God's law and consistent position about weapons and self -defense to promote a literally deadly form of pacifism.

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I want to stress that. Literally deadly form of pacifism. You see, let's talk about the danger of proof texting and failing to think in categories.

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Happens a lot with Christians. We go to the Bible, you'll see a verse, and what you'll do is you'll build off of a proof text an entire system and say, here's my proof text, and you'll build a system with your own presuppositions underneath it and say, well, here's my text.

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It's dangerous. We need to handle the word of God with integrity, with sharpness, with clarity, and we need to actually let

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God speak in categories. Let me give you an example of this. You guys are aware of Ted Bundy, right?

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Serial killer Ted Bundy and all the things that he did. I won't announce them from this pulpit, but Ted Bundy's mother was a good

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Christian woman, and that's been said in some of the interviews. She's a Christian. She believes in the word of God.

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She didn't want him to die because she didn't believe in the death penalty, and she tried to appeal to scripture in terms of repudiating the death penalty, and so she takes a category.

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Here's the category. Ready? Ready for the category? She takes a category. Exodus 20, 13 says you shall not kill, and so what they do is they take a category of you shall not kill, and then they take that and they drive it across everything and say, hey,

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God says you should not kill, so the rule is no killing, but is that really how we handle scripture?

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What's interesting about that is, listen to this, again, a category error, is Exodus 20, 13 is the

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Ten Commandment law of God where he says you shall not kill. By the way, the word underneath that is ratzak, and the semantic domain of the word ratzak in Hebrew is murder, unjustified taking of human life, but people say

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God says you should not kill, so no death penalty for Ted Bundy. The problem is, is that's

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Exodus 20, 13. If you would just read one chapter later in Exodus 21, verse 24,

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God says if somebody does kill somebody unjustly, the state is supposed to kill them back. So you should not kill, don't engage in unjustified killing, and then

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Moses says, and by the way, if somebody does, here is God's just punishment, you lose your life.

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That's what God says. Is that a contradiction? No, it's a category. It's a category.

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No unjustified killing, but certainly there are cases in a fallen world, brothers and sisters, where there is a category of justifiable killing of another human being.

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Do we want that? No, but it's the world we've chosen for ourselves. That's what we get.

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That's the world we wanted. That's the world we live in. These are the consequences. The truth is you should not murder, no unjustified killing, but in a fallen world, there is a category of justified killing.

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Another example is someone will read James chapter 2, where James says that we are not justified by faith alone.

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They say, see, here's my proof text. You are not justified by faith alone. James says it.

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The problem is, if you read James chapter 2, he's not even having the discussion of how a person is actually declared righteous before God.

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He's talking about how you and I know somebody has living faith, that they actually know

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God. How do you know that someone's truly a believer? By what they do. They're not vindicated by their profession of faith alone.

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They are vindicated by their works. How do you know that Abraham believed God? How do you know he did?

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Because many years later, he offered his son Isaac on the altar. That's James's discussion, but people love to proof text, and it can be dangerous.

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No, Jesus was not denying God's law word regarding weapons and self -defense.

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I'll give you something to go look up. It will be on Bonson U, hopefully shortly, but there was a debate many years ago between Dr.

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Greg Bonson and another man who was kind of like a liberal Presbyterian, and in the debate, it was about gun control.

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Dr. Bonson's authority was the word of God, and of course he appealed to all the data regarding self -defense and the use of weapons and all the rest, but he was appealing to the word of God, and when he was talking about this subject of weapons and God's word, he did this, and this is from actually an explanation of what happened in the debate.

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I think it's excellent. Dr. Bonson in his opening remarks does two things. First, he outlines some of the present legal and academic literature on the

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Second Amendment to the U .S. Constitution. He quotes extensively from recent academic studies on the matter of the relationship between gun ownership and violence in society.

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Bonson points out that guns are 83 percent effective when they are used either by law -abiding citizens to defend themselves or by criminals to commit a crime.

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They are, in fact, the most effective means of self -defense, according to studies by criminologist

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Gary Kleck. Having proposed the, quote, pragmatic reasons against gun control,

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Bonson then takes us directly to the word of God as his ultimate authority on the matter. He mentions

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Exodus 22 .2. God's law has the example of killing a thief found breaking and entering.

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God said this is justified. In Judges 15, it's the story of Samson killing many

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Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. That would be something to see. In Luke 11 .21,

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Jesus mentions when a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace.

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Now, of course, Jesus is teaching his people something, but he's putting it on the back of when a strong man is armed, he keeps his palace, his goods are in peace.

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In Nehemiah 4, the builders of the wall armed themselves. And in Luke 22 .36, where Jesus told his disciples to buy a sword.

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Bonson's point here is that there is an abundance of scriptures which speak to the issue of self -protection. Rather than being vague and imprecise,

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God, in his word, has spoken quite clearly on this subject. Let me give you another one. When people try to use a text like this, out of context, to say that Jesus somehow is teaching a form of pacifism, or now he doesn't allow believers to defend themselves, or that Jesus somehow is against weapons,

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I want to just point you, we could do this all day long, to all the instances in scripture where God actually commands his people to engage in warfare against people.

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Was that wrong? Was it immoral? Was it unethical? No. God commanded it because there is a righteous use of force in a fallen world.

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A righteous use of weaponry in a fallen world. But this, I owned a karate school for many years.

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Jerry knows this. Jerry was my assistant at the karate school many years ago.

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I've known Jerry since I was 18 years old, or that's when we first met. But I've run karate schools across the country,

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I've taught thousands and thousands of students. And when I had my own karate school, I had this very special thing created and put on the wall that everyone could see when they came into the studio, and it was

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Psalm 144 .1. Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

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I still train in the martial arts. I train as regularly as I can, and what

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I do before I actually begin every day of my training, whatever I'm doing,

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I pray first to glorify God in my training and to thank him for this gift. And before I start my training,

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I use Psalm 144 .1 as worship. Blessed be the

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Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. Here's the question, is that true?

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Is that verse good? Is that verse something we can sing? Because that's a song, by the way.

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Is that something we could sing as New Testament Christians? It's in the Word of God. There is a blessing in a fallen world when

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God trains your hands for war, your fingers for battle, not in an unjustified way like lopping somebody's ear off, but in the way that actually is in accordance with God's law of love.

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And that's what I want to hang on for a moment here. When people use this text out of context to, I think, really ultimately abuse people that can lead to death and pain and suffering and misery for people, they use this text to teach that somehow

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Jesus is saying you can't defend yourselves or you can't use weapons. I'm going to point to the fact that that is inconsistent with the whole of the scriptures and Jesus' command even to buy a sword and to use a weapon if necessary.

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But I want to say this, Jesus says all of the law and the prophets are built upon, number one, what?

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Love for God. And number two, what? Love for neighbor. That means all of God's laws are built upon loving

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God, loving neighbor. Even the laws that say if somebody breaks into your home and you have to defend yourself and your family and you end up killing them, that is loving.

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Again, think in categories. We have a person who's broken in who maybe is a threat to your family.

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Let me ask you a question. What is the most loving thing that a father and husband can do when somebody comes into the house and threatens to rape or kill your family?

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What is the loving thing to do? Kill him. Yes, I just said that across the pulpit.

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The act, the greatest act of love in an instance like that is to kill the intruder.

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Kill him. Why? Because if I allow my, and by the way this has been suggested before by Christian pacifists to say, you know, honestly we're believers now, you know, we love the

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Lord, we love our enemies even, and so if somebody breaks in your house to rape and kill your family, really you just sort of have to submit to it.

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That's hatred. What an ungodly suggestion. What a hateful thing to do.

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God commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In a fallen world, if you have the consequence of a person breaking into your home who represents a mortal threat to your family, the most loving thing before God and your family is to do everything in your power to end that person's life.

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Why? Because you are valuing your duty as a father and a husband to love and protect your family.

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If you are killed by an intruder as a father or as a husband, what happens to your family?

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So there is something here in terms of weapons and self -defense that actually has underneath it the law of love.

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Love your neighbor. I'll give you another example in terms of how this is a matter of love.

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When we have people today suggesting that we take away weapons from the populace or from mothers, wives, single women, when we say let's remove the weapons and the equalizers, let's remove the woman's ability to defend herself against a larger attacker or multiple attackers, we are submitting to something that is unloving and unjust.

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I just watched a video. We could do this ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

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We could have a whole series of weekends going over all the examples of how we must uphold biblical principles about weapons and self -defense to love our neighbor.

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I just saw an awful video. It was a Ring camera video. I don't know why people think they can get away with things anymore with Ring.

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I mean, you're getting seen and caught. Everyone's gonna watch it. But it was in Las Vegas recently.

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I think it was just last week. There was a man who showed up to a woman's door. I guess he was watching her, stalking her.

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Ring camera turns on and he's just sort of knocking on the door for like five minutes saying some very strange things.

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And the husband finally sees the guy on the Ring camera. The wife is inside the house calling the and trying to get help.

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And the man, the husband says through the Ring camera, who are you? What can I do for you?

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And the man says, and you have to forgive me, I want to make sure I make a point here that we can all remember. The man says, the stranger says to the husband in the

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Ring camera, I'm here to rape and kill the woman behind this door. As soon as she opens the door,

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I intend to rape and kill her. So the question is, what's the most loving thing that we can do for her?

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Make sure that she has a weapon. Make sure she has the ability to have an equalizer and defend herself against somebody who has darkness in their hearts.

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Jesus would never, ever repudiate the law of God regarding weapons and self -defense.

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To say that Jesus somehow is repudiating weapons and self -defense is to say somehow that Jesus was subverting the law of God, which he said in Matthew 5, 17 through 19.

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He did not come to abolish the law of the prophets. He came to fulfill them.

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We cannot look at a text like this out of context and submit to people who would give us and propose a different perspective of loving our neighbors than Jesus actually had.

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Love demands that we allow fellow image bearers of God to have weapons, for women to have equalizers, for fathers and husbands to be able to protect their families against people who intend them harm.

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Some final thoughts? You ready? How am I doing today on time? Am I doing all right? 5 .30.

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Woo! Okay. Final thoughts. We only have two hours left. So, you know,

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I just want to let you know that a number of people have come to me over the last year and have said,

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Pastor Jeff, I just want to let you know that I want you to go for like three hours. Do it.

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Okay. So, let's go. No, I really appreciate that and I praise God that he's using his word to bless you.

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But I really don't pay any attention to the time. Some final thoughts.

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Besides the weapon issue, miracles obviously don't convert people.

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Can we just do that for a second? Do you know how many miracle ministries there are out there? Like, we have a miracle ministry that's like leading people to Jesus and they have like all these crazy sort of conjured up fake miracles like making legs grow and, you know, they plant people in the audience.

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We know the charlatans. We know what they do. But even the concept of having a miracle ministry to bring people to Jesus, Jesus did not do miracles so that people would believe in him.

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Ultimately, that was not why Jesus was doing that. Jesus, what, I mean, think about Jesus' ministry. He raises

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Lazarus from the dead publicly. Lazarus is dead for days. He comes out of the tomb and the text actually says some believe

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Jesus and some didn't. What? He's raising a little girl from the dead.

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He's giving people their legs back and eyes back. He's putting ears back on. He's walking on water and still people are like, eh, not so sure.

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And in this case, in the text before us, Matthew 26, Jesus has an entire crowd fall down.

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That's the fuller story. They fall down because he tells them who he actually is. They fall down. He puts an ear back on somebody and they still drug him away.

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And his disciples left. They still take him to be murdered and they saw the miracles.

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So mark it down, brothers and sisters. Miracles obviously don't convert people.

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Dr. MacArthur mentions that this is the only occurrence or recording in the New Testament of a fresh wound being healed by Jesus and it still wasn't enough.

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The crowd of hundreds fell. Why? They heard the voice of their creator. They heard the voice of their

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God. They felt it. They saw the healing and they still abused, tortured, and killed

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Jesus. So, the kingdom of God, we learn here, does not advance through violence.

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How does Jesus expand his rule? How does he, how does he transform the world through tanks and bombs and guns?

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There's a place for that in the world in terms of a state protecting its citizens, of course, but how does

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Jesus expand his rule in the world? It's not through physical violence. He prohibits that.

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It is off limits. It's not Christian. It's not in accordance with the gospel. We don't convert people via the sword like some religions.

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How does the kingdom of God expand and the gospel go forth? Not by the sword, not through physical violence and threats, but through the proclamation of the gospel.

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We tell the truth about who Jesus is and what he's accomplished and we call people to repent and believe the gospel.

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The gospel doesn't advance through miracles that somehow convince dead sinners. What happens when dead people who are rebelling against God see a miracle?

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They find an excuse. I mean, how many times have you seen, have you talked to an atheist or have you seen conversations with an atheist where you say things like, even if you saw this and God did this, would you follow

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Christ? And they'll say defiantly, never. I'll never believe in him. Because the issue isn't miracles.

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The issue is a hard heart. And what we learn here in this text is that we don't change the world through violence.

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We're not going to convince people through miracles. It is simply the message of Jesus and what he's actually accomplished that converts sinners to Christ.

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That's how we win the world. Jesus comes into a context with a government that looks like it has a lot of power and it can affect you with a lot of violence and a lot of force.

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And Jesus comes into that world and says that he has all the authority in heaven and on earth and he says, go get the nations.

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But how? How are you going to get the nations? Through the proclamation of the truth. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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You want to see people come to Jesus, tell them the gospel. Tell them the gospel. Give them the truth of who

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Jesus is, what he's accomplished, and you let God increase that. You and I plant seeds. God brings the increase.

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God saves sinners. So let's go get them. Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the word that went out today for your glory and for your kingdom.

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We pray, Lord, you'd help us, Lord, to rightly divide the word of truth. We pray that,

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Lord, you'd grant to us, Lord, the ability even now to be transformed and renewed in our thinking on these issues.

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We thank you, Lord, for your word that's a gift to us. In Jesus' name, amen. Speaking of the last of the