The Sword And The Cross, Part 6

Sept. 14, 2008

The Sword and the Cross Part 6

Kathleen Maples

Joh 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

Joh 18:5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

Joh 18:6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

They are in the garden of Gethsemane. Tension is so thick. Emotions are running high. The would-be captors are nervous and unsure of themselves. (Joh_18:6) Two of His disciples hold swords, having been awakened abruptly out of a depression and fatigue induced sleep. They are not exactly sure what is happening or why. These disciples are loved by Jesus, they are saved. They are Christians. They are also carnal, and emotional and volatile when things don't go like they think they should. These last few days as they headed to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus had began to speak to them about the trial He would have to endure; His suffering, rejection and murder, and the cross anyone who would follow Him must pick up and carry daily. His message confused, burdened and depressed them. When they should have been praying, they were sleeping (Luk_9:32; Mar_14:39-40) When Peter, James and John followed Him off the mount of transfiguration, He healed a man's son who was tormented by a devil. The crowd was delighted and amazed, but in the midst of this crowd's pleasure with Him, He quietly warns His disciples "let this saying sink down in to your ears for the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men." Jesus has begun to refer to Himself in the third person, distancing Himself from this flesh He walked in. He takes a small child and begins to teach about humility (Luk_9:45-48) because they began in their confusion to argue about who would be the greatest. I believe they were bragging about defending Him from those He said would seize Him. As flesh always does, it boasts in its own strength, and so did theirs. As they travel into a village of Samaritans, there is prejudice in their hearts. Samaritans thought they had the truth and tried to worship God in the light they had. The Jews despised them and considered them lower than dogs. Here, the Samaritans refused to accept Jesus because they could see He did not intend to stay. (Luk_9:53-56) James and John got offended and asked the Lord to allow them to call fire from heaven and consume them just like Elijah did. He rebukes them for their negative and destructive spirit. He reminds them He did not come to to destroy men's lives but to save them.

When Jesus wanted to feed the multitudes who'd been on the mount with Him, hearing the Word of God for 3 days, they wanted to send the crowd away hungry. When the woman who's daughter was grievously vexed with a devil came to Jesus, they complained about how she cried for them when He wouldn't answer her. Even when He told her it wasn't right to give the children's bread to dogs, she answered with humility and faith and perseverance. When the woman came weeping in Luk_7:37-40 and poured out a sacrifice of worship on Him, His own disciples were critical and in agreement with the Pharisees here at this dinner. They considered it a waste, just as Simon, the host, did. They thought her behavior out of line. They were emotional, and carnal men. They loved Him, but in their own way, their actions, had He not been there to restrain them, could have been just as destructive to the people as the Pharisees. Joh 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (Mat_12:36-37) Heb_4:12) Mat 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? Mat 26:54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Now, here they stand, two of them with swords, and a group of officers, with Judas, carrying torches and lanterns and weapons. They come for Him. One disciple says "Should we smite them with the sword? Should we fight, Lord?" (Luk_22:49) Peter doesn't even wait for the Lord to answer. He just starts swinging the sword because he's in a situation he doesn't like, and he thinks to defend the Lord. Ask yourself, does the Creator of all things really need flesh to defend Him? No, He doesn't need our help. Never. Peter cuts off a man's ear, named Malchus, whose name means 'counselor or king'. Malchus was a servant of the great high priest. He was a servant of the religious high priest. Consider that carefully then think about how many people are bound today by religious attitudes and spirits, people who struggle with fear and guilt and condemnation over every little failure. These were a people who ruled strictly and harshly over the Jews. They had so many rules and regulations the people could never hope to live up to their interpretation of the Law of God. But the Lord, seeing how His own had wounded this man, stops everything. He tells them to allow this-don't fight it. Don't resist this for it must be. He reaches out to this wounded man, who probably couldn't hear because of the pain roaring in his head, and He restores the ear. He heals the man. The pain vanishes. The ear is made whole. The bleeding stops. He can hear again out of his ear. Luk 22:51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

I've seen this in Pentecostal circles. I once visited a church during their camp meeting a couple years ago and sat alone in the back. The place was packed and the service had already started. The visiting evangelist and his wife knew me and my love for the Lord. But the other folks in this church didn't. Some had seen me, a

few times there, and at other churches in the city where I live, but these folks were never very friendly, and were of the opinion that women's hair should never be cut, they should never wear any makeup or jewelry, not even wedding rings. They consider it sin if women wear pants, and if their sleeves aren't long, if their dresses aren't long, and their collars aren't high and then they consider that one is dressed 'worldly'. They even frown on men having facial hair. True worldliness is trying to do anything apart from the power and will of God. We are born in self, raised in self, walk, live, eat, sleep and breathe in self. Self always wants to be first-even in religious circles. It takes the miraculous power of God to separate us from ourselves. To show us what self really is so we will want to reject self completely and totally embrace HIM. It takes the power of the Holy Ghost to work in us and overcome that self. If we ever overcome what we are apart from God, it must be by HIS Spirit, by HIS power and HIS might-not human effort. When the altar call came at this service, I remained seated, bowed my head and prayed, for I had struggled to get there. It had cost me something personally that night to get there. During this altar call, a couple ladies of the church approached me and began to pray for me. I realized as I heard their prayer they thought I was a sinner-that I had never met God. My heart sank, for I knew I'd been examined and found wanting. My hair wasn't as long as theirs, my dress wasn't quite as long but it was below my knees. I felt so uncomfortable. I knew I didn't measure up to their idea of what holiness is. I felt out of place and sad. The evangelist's wife came to me and hugged me, and I saw the surprise on the other ladies' faces. They asked me where I went to church. I told them, and they didn't have much else to say. Still, I sensed their disapproval. Religious people without discernment, and compassion have wounded so many. I have seen people driven right out of the house of God because of these kinds of attitudes. I have seen young women come in church, wearing pants, or having cut their hair, but with a hunger for God, and they ended up wounded from the unwise comments of those who are in authority, or church members who have been there for a long time who should know better. At one time, I struggled with this same spirit. I praise His Holy Name for delivering me from this critical spirit that tried to grip me, as well. I've seen them leave feeling discouraged, and hopeless. I have battled this sense of failure and hopelessness, too. When I was a teenager, I was wounded in the house of God, told I was on my way to hell because I wore a short sleeved dress and a bracelet my dad gave me a few years earlier when I was very sick. My sleeves on my dress were short sleeves, but my dress was decent. I was 15 years old. She was an assistant pastor's wife. I looked at her, in confusion, hurt. She knew I had been eyeing her 18 year old son, and she did not like it. She wasted no time telling me they didn't believe in marriage. I said 'but you are married.' She said that she had gotten married before she got saved. So, they were going to doom their son to a life of loneliness because of their religion? I see this man from time to time and to this day that man has not married. I walked away from that lady and that church that day and I told my mother I never wanted to go to church again. I was convinced if that was how God was, I did not want any part of Him. I saw Him so misrepresented by religious people that I began to think very unkindly of Him myself. I thought, I can't please these people, how could I ever please God? If this is how He is I want nothing to do with Him. All I had heard preached was the thundering against sin, and external things the religious considered worldly, until I felt afraid to breathe wrong. I'm sure in

my young mind I misunderstood some things, but I don't ever remember feeling love, gentleness or kindness or compassion in that place, except from one or two people who were not in leadership. The Word of God is a living thing, it's active, powerful, and sharper than any double edged sword. It cuts on both sides. It penetrates and separates the soulish and spiritual, is able to judge the thoughts and feelings of people's minds. It's the most sophisticated and dangerous weapon that has ever existed. In the hands of someone with out the heart of God for humanity it causes much damage. In the hands of someone who is not led by the Holy Spirit, it can spiritually kill. Jesus had told the disciples many things about the cross, the suffering, the rejection and betrayal and death He would soon endure. They had not lived and traveled with Him these past 3 1/2 years knowing He would leave them. He had not told them these things until it was time. But even then, He had many more things to tell them but in Joh_16:12 He says "I have many things to say to you but you cannot endure them yet." Paul is preaching to a carnal church in 1Co_3:2, he tells them he could only feed them with milk because they could not handle meat. They couldn't bear it, he says. Ministers and laymen and women alike must depend on God's Holy Spirit to guide them. His Word accomplishes what He intends when HE sends it, and quickens it to the hearer. If we just wield it unwisely, we do damage. It takes seeking God to know what is needed by the sheep. It takes being in subjection to HIM, led by HIM or we wound and mischaracterize Him. We don't know what people are able to bear. When I hear the term holiness preacher or holiness people. I cringe inside. I've learned from experience to expect harshness, legalism, and a critical attitude from those who identify themselves that way. Something else I have learned-if we preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and we have had our own divine revelation of Him, His beauty, His holiness, we will not be anything but humble, grateful, and eager to show Him to others. If we can help others see Him and understand who He is and what He's like, by being an accurate reflection of Him, then they will want Him, too. If this is our testimony, the Holy Spirit can point us out to others and stir up a hunger in their hearts to know this great Christ for themselves. The more I see of Him the less I want of this world, self, or anything that would hinder or separate me from HIM. This is what all preachers need to understand. Show them Christ and they will want Him. He said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself. We lift HIM up for their examination, and people will either want Him or reject Him. But it will be a decision made based on truth, not a lie. Peter lashed out and cut off this man's ear. Jesus restrained him and reaches out a hand that would soon be pierced with nails, and healed Malchus' ear. As I was reading back over these Scriptures I've been studying for a while now, I saw something in these Scriptures I'd not seen before and it delighted me. Where I am, I know there is a whole generation of people who were wounded in the name of religious tradition, driven from God, and had God misrepresented to them, and they shun Him now. I was one of them. But in the midst of His own carnal disciples, and those who would be His captors, He reaches out, and restores this man's ear. He can restore spiritual hearing, and spiritual vision to those who have been wounded by the Word in the hands of unwise men and women. I wanted to shout when I saw this. I know people who have been so wounded and so hurt they run from God and want no part of Him. When I saw this, it gave me hope that they could be reached. What a lovely Savior I am learning as I dig in this Precious

Book. He is so amazing. He did not rail on Peter, nor try to bring him under condemnation for his rash behavior. He restrained him. He healed the wounded. When we behold Him in the mirror of this Word, oh, it makes me long to be more like HIM. We have the promise in 2 Cor 3:18. When we behold Him, we are made like Him. Peter could have been condemned and charged guilty for assaulting Malchus, and could have gone on trial with Him. I want to share what I read about this in Faussett's Bible Dictionary: John was "known to the high-priest" and his household, so that he procured admission from her that kept the door, for his close colleague Peter, and was able to state, what the other evangelists omit, that another servant who charged Peter with being Jesus' disciple "was his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off." Another incidental propriety confirming genuineness is, Jesus says to Pilate, "if My kingdom were of this world then would My servants fight"; yet none charged Him, not even Malchus's kinsman who was near, with the violence which Peter had used to Malchus. Why? Because Jesus by a touch had healed him (Luk_22:51), and it would have wonderfully tended to elevate Jesus as one more than human in love and in power, in Pilate's estimation, had they charged Him with Peter's act. Malchus was Caiaphas the high priest's own servant, not a minister or apparitor of the council. 'There were but two swords in the disciples' hands (Luk_22:38); while the holder of one was waiting for Christ's reply to their question, "Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" the holder of the other, Peter, in the same spirit as in Mat_16:22, smote with the weapon of the flesh. What a narrow escape Peter providentially had of a malefactor's and a murderer's end! The sheath is the place for the Christian's sword, except as the judicial minister of God's wrath upon evil doers (Rom_13:4). Jesus used His last moment of liberty in touching and healing afflicted man. This was Jesus' last miracle relieving human suffering. The hands so often put forth to bless and to cure were thenceforth bound and stretched on the cross, that form of His ministry in the flesh ceasing forever. In Zec 4:6 the Scripture tells us that it's not by human strength, or military might, nor by human ability or power, but by HIS SPIRIT, says the LORD of HEAVEN'S ARMIES! Anything that is accomplished in the kingdom of God is done by His Spirit. We can't do anything but get in His way if we are not led by Him, and yielded to Him. If we don't know Him we can do nothing but misrepresent Him. Don't take anyone's word for who He is, we must seek our own personal revelation of Him. We must know Him ourselves. No one can eat this Book for us. We have to eat it ourselves. If we don't we have no life in us. His Word is Spirit and Life. He possesses eternal life-The Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost. We can only have it as we feed on HIM. The source doesn't come from us but to us. What compassion the Son of God displays every time His own act up in a way that would be harmful. Now we have the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit, to guide us and prevent us from this if we listen. In our zeal, let us not wound and maim others. He empowered and changed them. When they saw flesh crucified, when they saw everything they believed in and trusted in hung on a cross, and killed, I believe He was

showing them flesh is not where your confidence is to be. I know there was more to the cross than this, but He did not come down from the cross. He let them nail His flesh to the cross. He submitted to this torture, trusting the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Word of His Father to raise Him back up in 3 days. He showed them I do not defend Myself, I do not deliver Myself. I do not retaliate against those who hurt Me, not inwardly or outwardly. That is in My Father's hands. God help us learn this and God help those who both have wounded others, and been wounded. He forgave His own, and He healed the one they wounded. If someone is overtaken by their zeal and wounds another, there is hope of healing. There is hope of divine rescue, for the one who hurts and the one who hurt them. The cross is the death of the flesh. Death of self, that which would rise up in the name of religion and wound and maim. With flesh dead, the Spirit of Christ is in full control and miracles happen. I believe God would pour His power through a vessel who is dead to self and this world, who wants nothing but HIM and HIS Will, because whatever miracle is done, self won't dare touch the glory or exalt itself because it's dead. God alone is glorified. Those who are bitter and wounded because they have been hurt by religion, He is able to reach out His nail scarred hand and restore their ability to hear Truth again. This man, Malchus, he was the servant of the high priest who was plotting the arrest and murder of this Christ and I believe Malchus knew this. Servants hear talk, you know. Imagine what he thought, looking in his pain, into the face of the Savior, and seeing the compassion there. Seeing the Restorer reach out to him when he had been wounded by one of this Man's very own. Oh, for those who have been hurt, He can open their eyes. He can destroy the yoke and set them free. Hallelujah! Oh, the depths, the great depths of the Truth of God. I praise His Holy Spirit for being willing to show us these things! I praise God for each one of you who takes time to read these things and share the Bread of Life with me. God bless you! Be strong, and encouraged. God is mighty, and able to do more than we could ever even imagine!!!!