Lesson #297
It was mentioned in the last lesson that we would revisit
John 18:10 – 11 in this lesson: “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and
struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant's name
was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I
not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”” (ESV). First, we need to
consider the difference between Jesus and Peter in relationship to our enemy
and second, we need to consider the cup given to Jesus by his Father to drink.
Jesus presented himself as the righteous one from the
Father, who came to purchase our salvation. His claims infuriated the Jewish
leaders and in their anger and hate, they planned to kill him. Jesus knew why
he was on earth and the events that would lead him to the cross. He also knew
the timing and had the power and focus to arrive at the cross at a specific
time, having accomplished the appropriate work along the way. This was
accomplished without physical force or any violence, simply with spoken words
and acts of power. When the time came he surrendered into their hands and died,
finishing the work he was sent to do.
Then there was Peter who saw a different enemy and had a
different approach. The enemy that Peter saw was the Roman government, which
Peter felt could be overcome by the power and leadership of Jesus. If Jesus can
change water to wine, can heal people, feed people with the spoken word, control
the wind and the sea, raise the dead, and cause those coming to arrest him to
fall down before him by saying “I AM”, then possibly Peter might have thought
this could be the beginning of that uprising that he thought the Messiah would
lead and so he strikes out with his sword believing that Jesus would then take
the lead, but instead Jesus commands Peter to put away his sword, heals the
damage done and again announces why he was sent to earth by his Father. Jesus
knew what his mission was, but Peter had his own mission and it did not match
that of Jesus.
This leads to the conclusion of the first point we were
going to cover. Think about Christians in the world today and the forms of the
enemy that they face. Anyone who truly identifies and walks with Jesus, intent
on living a righteous and holy life will stir up hate in the lives of the
unsaved. Over and over again Jesus made this very clear. We must not be
deceived as Peter was and think that our enemy is some form of evil in this
world. It is more than that; it is the power behind the evil, the power of
darkness, the devil. In time Rome fell and was replaced by other world powers
or kingdoms.
I think of my brothers and sisters living under persecution.
They are not taking up weapons of the world in which to fight their enemy, but
instead they are continuing to witness and as a result they suffer and many
even die. Jesus died and purchased our salvation, rising victorious over death.
These under persecution are suffering and even dying and as a result the church
is seeing tremendous growth. What is the victory we are looking for and what
are our instruments of warfare? If it is some kind of kingdom here on earth,
then we line up behind Peter, but if it is the Kingdom of the beloved Son, then
our instruments of warfare are quite different and we will approach our enemy
with love and forgiveness as Jesus did, not with some form of violence, leaving
justice in the hands of God.
We will get to the second point in the next lesson.
Prayer
Father, this lesson was from my heart and I believe contains
some things we need to think about today. I believe we need to identify our
enemy and the effect it is having on us. I believe we need to stand against
that enemy while we still have the freedom to do so, but when the enemy seems
to gain the upper hand, strengthen us with your grace and fill us with your
love so that we can stand with endurance and steadfastness of faith and
continue to be a witness by loving our persecutors and forgiving them because
they do not know what they are doing. Father, use our suffering and even the
loss of our lives as a means of advancing the Kingdom of your beloved Son.
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