Arrest in Gethsemane (Part C)

We'd rather kill him than let him be successful with truth. That's how it shakes out. In verse 49, I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me, but the scripture must be fulfilled.

In other words, I am right, you are wrong, but there's nothing going to change because of this, because you're that far gone. And the scripture announced this, that God knew this long before, and now it is taking place. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will conclude his message called, Arrest in Gethsemane, in Mark chapter 14. Verse 47, and one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Well, now we're getting back to Peter, which is, and when I read this, we're getting back to me. I see myself in Peter. Once they laid their hands on Jesus, Peter made his move.

He was no coward, as I have been making my position clear on that. Luke says, when they asked for permission, Peter didn't wait. He acted. Luke's Gospel chapter 22, verse 49. When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? What do you think Peter did? He didn't wait for the Lord to say yes or no. And it goes on in Luke chapter 22, verse 50. But one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Peter did not.

He would have none of this. Once they put their hands on the Lord, he pounced. My flesh says, go Peter, go.

I'm with you. The swordsman of Gethsemane, we know from John's Gospel. And we know the name of the servant whose ear was cut off, John tells us. But John was very much plugged into the temple, likely selling fish to them.

They were customers there. He's the one that gets Peter into the courtyard. Anyway, of course, the Lord restores the ear of Malchus that Peter hacked off. Was Peter more frustrated that he missed the head of Malchus?

No, of course, he wasn't. But it is the last miracle that Jesus does before the cross, patching up the blunder of one of his beloved servants. So he heals the ear of Malchus. Otherwise, Peter may have been arrested as well. There would have been four crosses up on Calvary. But the Lord, of course, rebuked him. This is not how we do it, Peter. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. That totally disarmed Peter mentally.

He didn't know what to do at that point. Second Corinthians. I like this verse when things are going my way. I don't like this verse when things are not going my way as far as what the enemy is doing. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. And, of course, that the weapon of pulling down strongholds is oftentimes enduring persecution even to the death. So Simon's swing of the sword that just took place far more nobler than the kiss of Judas, is it not?

I would rather swing the sword and be rebuked than give the kiss of a traitor. And yet I know that in me dwells no good thing. My flesh, in my flesh is no good thing. I'm capable of any sin. But I also know, as Peter tells us, kept by the power of God.

I don't have to rely on my strength. I rely on the Lord. Peter unwittingly fighting against our redemption and his own redemption. He did this before when the Lord said that he was going to the cross and Peter had Caesarea Philippi said, no, be it far from you and the Lord says to say, get behind me, Satan.

Well, this is the second time because he doesn't yet understand what's going on. He doesn't understand that Jesus is indeed the sacrificial lamb, not just a philosophy. So instead of me paying the price for my sin, he paid it. Matthew 26 verse 56, all this was done that the scripture of the prophets might be fulfilled. And Jesus is going to say that again. Well, that tells us that this is totally under the control of God.

But back to Peter again. When he denies the Lord, when he flees the garden here and later denies the Lord and then he goes out and weeps, it's not because he was a coward. Though he thought it was cowardly of him, it's really just confusion. We've just proven that he's no coward.

He's ready to fight these guys to the death. The fact that they all ask, shall we draw swords, demonstrates that they were prepared to die for him, but it was more important to obey the Lord. Although Jesus had to give Peter a little extra lesson on that. So his failure in fleeing and not dying there, but still wanting to obey the Lord and receiving the rebuke when the Lord said, this is not how we do it, Peter. So Matthew chapter five, Jesus long ago warned, let your yes be yes and your no no for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. And of course, Peter violated that.

All these guys can forsake you. I'm never going to leave you and you just should have said, yeah, Lord, I'm going to be there. But he learned and it was a hard lesson and it's not sorted out in his head yet and it won't be sorted out as we pointed out in earlier sessions. It will take three visits from the Lord to put Peter back together after boasting he would never run and then running.

Now we have to point this out. Peter will be there there to hear the rooster crow. This is so much about the man. He could have been home shivering under his blanket, but he's still following the Lord. Albeit, he doesn't know what to do. The sword has been taken from him.

Now, how do I, what's my role here? What do you think would have happened if the Lord said to Jesus in the courtyard, okay, get him. It would have been no hesitation on Peter's part. I like to stand up for these apostles when they are, I think, sometimes wrongfully accused and of course, Peter being accused of being a coward irritates me because I don't see him that way.

I see him as a man who is very courageous in his faith and it comes out in his life. Anyway, verse 48, and Jesus answered and said to them, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? Of all the guilty people on earth, of all the robbers on earth, of all the bad people out there that they could be arresting, these boys managed to treat the only innocent one as a criminal. They had a unique genius for spiritual insanity and we're seeing it acted out.

You would hope that at some point in their life they would have come to that realization, but we don't know. We know that there were the priests that were saved at Pentecost. How many of these that were hands on in the arrest in Gethsemane were converted? And then many of them became a problem after they came into Christianity. They wanted to, of course, Judaize it, which would have killed Christianity and it took an apostle Paul to stand up to them, a man of his intellectual caliber and phenomenal courage of the apostle Paul, just traces steps through Turkey and how he ministered to those churches.

I don't know if I could have done that. When he writes in 2 Corinthians in that 11th chapter about all the things he's got to put up with, you know, within the world, the robbers, the thieves, the shipwrecks, the pirates, and then he also mentions, not to mention, the things of the church daily. What a hero. Verse 48, when Jesus again is where we are, he asks us, you come out as against a robber.

They were ready for violence. They would kill to arrest him, to stop him from doing any more miracles. We don't want you to help people anymore. We want to stop you from telling people what God says about God. We want to stop you from pointing out that our religious hypocrisy is an abomination. John, chapter 7, Jesus speaking to his brothers who didn't get it, that he was Messiah.

And, you know, you look at all these people around Christ and you say, how could they miss the virtuous life if nothing else? How could they not say, there's something about him that's just nothing like us? But, you know, some people just can't give you the satisfaction to being right. And for siblings, that can be very hard. It's not good when siblings compete with each other in a malicious way.

I mean, it's okay at, you know, the checkerboard, but not family versus family who look at me, just have love. But anyway, maybe that got somebody. Maybe there's a lot of things I've said this morning that's gotten somebody.

If it has, it's the power of preaching, it's the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm just a messenger. Don't get me, get the assistant pastor. He's not doing anything right now. Anyway, John 7, the world cannot hate you.

We pause there just at that word. Can the world hate me or am I too chummy with it? The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You know, you can testify against the world without saying a word, just by the way you live. Just by saying, no, I'm not going to do that. Not my thing.

I disagree. And then when they, of course, they start drilling down on you and say, well, why don't you do this? And you start telling them. These Pharisees and priests and Sadducees at this time, they were making this statement with their behavior. If anyone's going to create religion, it is us. We will not have some Galilean Nazareth dare tell us about God. In fact, we'd rather kill him than let him be successful with truth. That's how it shakes out. In verse 49, I was daily with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me, but the scripture must be fulfilled. In other words, I am right, you are wrong, but there's nothing going to change because of this, because you're that far gone.

And the scripture announced this, that God knew this long before and now it is taking place. How frustrating. I tell you, this passion week of Christ, when he enters the city riding on a donkey till the crucifixion, I never like it. It's necessary.

It's impaired. You have to have it. It's our salvation. But who wants to see the Lord suffer? I rejoice that he did.

It doesn't mean I got to like how he did, how he allowed the processes to go. There's no other way. And so even now reading this, I want to rescue him. That's what love does. Love wants to protect the object of their love. And yet, greater love has no man than this, that one would lay down his life for his friend.

And that's where it all becomes an act of faith and not just human reason. He was daily with them. In the temple he says teaching. As I mentioned earlier, he was always teaching because what is the opposite of not being taught? You know, the old expression, you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Ignorance is very costly. These men refused to be taught and so they died in their ignorance, willful ignorance. He never gave up. Even from the cross he's going to be teaching.

He's going to teach us how men ought to die for God. Verse 50, then they all forsook him and fled. Peter is the only one that points out, they all forsook him. Now again, it's Mark's gospel as I start in the introduction to the study of Mark, it was my position and others that Peter is the one that gave Mark this information. Though Mark was present for some of it himself, all of the indicators go in that direction and that's how I'm approaching it. So, you know, they all forsook him.

It wasn't just me. Zechariah 13.7 is the prophecy that said this would happen. Awake sword against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion. In the Hebrew there is the man who is my equal.

That's what a companion is. The Soviets blew that. Or the communists, you know, calling everybody Conrad while they're killing each other. The word mad. The communism is madness. And these young, ignorant people walking around with Che Guevara on their shirt do not understand the man was a serial killer and would shoot them as quick as he would light a cigar. And it's just the ignorance that is given or dispensed in institutions that are supposed to be anything but ignorance.

They're supposed to be institutions of learning, truth. Anyhow, I'm still irritated from the 60s. I couldn't understand why the college kids weren't in classroom and out there demonstrating.

I couldn't get that. I really, it's like, why? I gotta go to class. Why do they get to go and play hooky?

Anyhow, I mean, why do they get to protest our troops coming back from war? All right, I'm, you know, I've forgiven them. I just don't like them. No, okay. Anyway, back to Zechariah. The one who is my equal, says Yahweh of hosts.

Well, that's an indication, the deity of Jesus Christ, that he is God the Son, equal with the Father. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And this is what we're seeing.

They all fled. Then I will turn my hand against the little ones. And that is, of course, subsequent persecution that will come to these men, but not tonight. Their turn will come. But now it is the Lord's special work and they have no part in that.

True grit is no match for unleashed evil. And no matter how much courage they may have entered into this was something very dark and spiritual. Luke chapter 22, Jesus says, but this is your hour, the power of darkness. If you think your Christianity is just some recital of religion, you've missed it.

You might not have it. It is a very real and spiritual world that we are interacting with. Jacob, when he saw the ladder going up and down from earth to heaven, there's this interaction between God and his people that is very real and there is also an enemy. And once it's understood by we Christians, we become stronger with this information. This is intelligence.

This is vital. It is accurate intelligence. And once we understand in ministry, for me to understand that Satan targets Christians and how we think and what we do is very helpful information for me as a pastor. Otherwise, I begin to say, well that person is just this or that person is that. No, it is a real devil that we fight. Now it doesn't work the other way.

I just got it together. And you don't have to worry about that. Of course, sarcasm is being absurd here. This is why we covet the prayers of each other. Whether you see, you know, you can say as a Christian, I have seen more unanswered prayer than answered prayer. Have you? Have you really? Have you seen everything God has done? You see all the intricacies that he works out and allows and disallows?

Of course not. So we hold our tongue and we become disciples, disciplined, ready to learn and ready to act. And so this is a big deal. Jesus at this time, he understood of course the prophecies. He's the author and finisher of our faith. These men did not understand they were living the verse.

They certainly knew about these things but they didn't connect it at the time, which is not unusual. You know, under pressure it's hard to think clearly. You've got to train yourself to think clearly under pressure. John chapter 16, indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come that you will be scattered each to his own and will leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. The moment will come when he will say, why have you forsaken me to the Father? Because that's a whole other realm that we cannot totally enter in.

We can look down the hallway and that's about it. But what else could they do at this point? He stopped them from fighting and then he asked that they would be released. John chapter 18, Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he.

Therefore if you seek me, let these go their way. He wanted them to flee so they could live to preach and carry out what he invested in them for the last three and a half years. The Lord had more for them to do than to be slain that night. What a waste that would have been had Peter been killed there in the Garden of Gethsemane.

There would have been a lot of problems with that, the distraction from what he was doing and on and on. It was important to the Lord that they get out of there and live to preach and to lead the church. When we get to the book of Acts, you know, the momentum, the excitement that comes with that, it's for us to not just read about it and be thrilled as you would an action movie.

It's for us to catch the vision. And as the years go on, I don't know, you know, you have these times where you're obeying Christ with no emotion. It's just duty. It's obedience and that is a good thing. And then there are those times where there's a lot of emotion.

That's a nicer deal, but you can't count on that. You have to be ready to serve no matter what. And thus John the Baptist, are you the one or do we look for another? Emotionally, he was struggling, but he was obedient to the end. Anyway, they were to do the work he gave them to do. Verse 51, sounds like we did a lot of verses. We're up to verse 51. Now a certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body, and the young man laid hold of him. I do think it's too much information in these two verses, but, you know, so it is.

Let's see what's happening. This is not a mysterious random entry by Mark. I very strongly feel this is Mark, sort of a cameo appearance, autobiographical. If not Mark, then who? And if not Mark, then why bother?

It would take away from Jesus Christ what he is doing. There's got to be a better reason why this is said. It is Mark's way of saying, as a lad, I saw it. I was there. It was real to him, and it could not be unsaid by him. He could not leave this out.

Could you imagine seeing something like this and writing about it and not mentioning that I saw this? John starts off his first letter in this very way. Of course, he's years later after the crucifixion, resurrection, church has been born, the Gnostics have come up with their junk, they're infiltrating the church, and John is writing to Christians saying, listen, watch out for these guys. I was there. I saw Jesus. I laid hands on him, not in the Pentecostal way. But anyway, that which was from the beginning, John 1, 1, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handles concerning the word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

He's not backing down. I was there. These Johnny-come-latelys, they were not there. So Mark is saying, I was there. I was there the night he was betrayed and arrested, and he may not have heard all that was going on, but he was there. Evidently, he was sleeping, and he gets up and he takes this linen blanket or sheet and wraps it around himself.

You can hear, you can hear the troops clanging around, the torches, the lamps that they have in the night. This Mark, he lived in Jerusalem. We will read about that when we get to the book of Acts. The fact that he has linen suggests that he comes from a well-to-do family. And then verse 52, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. They all fled, and this one was the one that was the shiniest. You just see him scooting back to Jerusalem, scratching your head if you were out there for a walk.

What did I just see? Well, in all seriousness, Mark is saying Christ is real to me. It's the only thing, the only mention, the only indication that he was there in this entire book given his name. And I have to ask myself, is Christ real enough to me to insert myself into his experiences? To say, look, yeah there's some hard verses in the Bible that I can't figure out, but I've been born again. I have met the Lord. I know who the Lord is. I have heard his voice. There's a lot of things I don't have answers to, but there is the thing that I have the answer to, and that he is the Lord. And what is going on between Jesus Christ and me is very real. I'm not repeating this because I'm expected to repeat it. It is real to me, whether you like it or not.

Take it or leave it, this is what I'm telling you. And so, looking at Mark, we say, where am I in the Jesus story? And today, right now, where am I in the Jesus story? Mark says I was there, and I'm saying I'm there too. I'm present, and I'm accounted for in Christ.

A lot of military little, you know, things put in, so you civilians can like catch up. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.