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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

Of Love and Revolution

Greetings once again, we are still in the pandemic as we begin to unlock the world and as the pandemic has begun to Seemingly recede although there's talk of resurgence now We've seen a whole nother pandemic jump on the scene, a pandemic of protests and response to injustice and violence.

And some of that has been phenomenal and bringing attention to some of the horrible things that are happening in the country and at the same time there's been a lot of worry and fret over whether or not violence would take over so Not all pandemics are bad in that sense, if we can pandemic our way out of injustice, but times are just changing so fast.

And so tonight, once again, we're in Newington, Connecticut at the 3 Angels Church, and we are going to deal with a subject related to the current protests and the current injustice.

Our scripture reading is taken from Matthew chapter 5 starting at verse 43.

It says, have you heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.

Our message tonight is entitled, Of Love and Revolution.

Of love and revolution, the Christian response to a world of injustice.

Father God, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to go into your word.

Once again, Lord, I need to be made into just a simple sorry nail.

Hammer that nail into the wall using your Holy Spirit and then hang upon that nail a portrait of Jesus Christ.

I do not need to be seen or heard tonight.

Instead, Father God, we are asking for the Holy Spirit to be felt and for the words of the Lord to only be spoken is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name Amen so we are gonna start in the book of John chapter 18 Bible says when Jesus had spoken these words he went forth with his disciples over the brook of Kedron.

Where was a garden into that into the which he entered and his disciples.

Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place.

For Jesus oft times reported thither with his disciples.

Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Here in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus has brought his disciples.

He asked them to watch with him for a while.

Christ in this garden has the weight of the sins of the world laid upon him.

As he agonized, his sweat is no longer a mixture of sodium and chloride and water.

His sweat begins to have the presence of hemoglobin as he begins to sweat blood.

Christ is weighed down and he's agonizing with the father, asking him that if it was any way that this cup could pass from him, that he would allow it, that if the Father would allow it to pass.

But the spirit of prophecy tells us that as Christ is there in the garden, the angel that stands in front of God who took the place of Lucifer is ministering to Christ and explaining to him what is at stake and all of the millions of lives that would be saved by what Christ is going to do.

And Christ decides to drink the bitter cup of persecution, of humiliation, and of death.

1 of the 12, Judas Iscariot, for 30 pieces of silver has sold himself for the right to betray his master.

At the Last Supper, when Jesus warns Judas that this is what he would do, the Bible says that Jesus tells Judas, Whatsoever thou doest, doest thou quickly.

And the Bible says that as Judas leaves, he enters into darkness, not just because he goes into the darkness of the night, but the Bible also tells us that Satan enters into him.

Judas now is beyond the point of any return, and he gets this band, collects his money, and the officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, and they come with lanterns, the Bible says, and torches.

And the last word there in John 18 in verse 3 is, they come with weapons.

They have come with an army to capture a carpenter.

Matthew 26 and verse 47 says, And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, 1 of the 12, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people.

Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he, hold him fast." Not only does he come with this great multitude that has swords and staves from the chief priests and elders.

But the Bible tells us in Matthew 26 and verse 48 that Judas is going to betray Christ with a kiss.

Verse 49, and forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him.

The Bible does not say that Jesus rejects this kiss from Judas.

Judas kisses Jesus probably on the side of his face as a greeting that's supposed to be a greeting of warmth.

Jesus, knowing his intentions in verse 50 says, "'Friend, wherefore art thou come?' And literally the only answer Judas would have been able to give is that he came from darkness because that's the last time he's mentioned that's what he went into.

The Bible says, Then came they and laid hands on Jesus, and they took him.

John 18 and verse 4 says, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, whom seek ye?

And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground." before Jesus could be identified, fully identified, as the men are coming towards him, the scripture tells us that seemingly with a thought, Jesus is able to throw all of them down.

And this was a warning to them that they were not dealing with a normal man, that it was divinity that they were now trying to capture.

John 18 and verse 7 says it like this, Then Asked them again, Whom seek ye?

Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he.

If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake of, spake of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none?

So as they come, he throws them back and they say, look, we're looking for Jesus.

I would imagine that somewhere in here is where Judas would have kissed him on the cheek.

And the scripture tells us that Jesus in this dark moment comes to the defense of his recently sleeping disciples, the 11.

And says, listen, it's me you want, let my disciples go.

And a prophecy was fulfilled that he would lose none of his disciples John 18 and verse 10 then Simon Peter having a sword drew it and smote the high priest servant and cut off his right ear The servants name was Malchus The story gets interesting Jesus has already thrown these men back.

The high priest's servant, Malchus, is standing there, and Malchus is watching the whole thing.

There are some bible commentaries who say that maybe Judas was standing behind Malchus and so Peter drew his sword to go after Judas but instead got the high priest's servant.

There are others who argue that maiming someone who wanted to be the high priest 1 day, you couldn't lose an ear and be a priest, or be maimed and be a priest.

And so going back to the book of Leviticus, so maybe Peter went after his ear so that the servant of the high priest could no longer seek being a priest.

But there's no, you can look at this a whole lot of ways as to why Peter did this, but it really boils down to this.

Peter wanted Christ to step up in this moment and fight a violent revolution against the powers that be.

Peter thought that he could draw the sword.

In fact, what's interesting is when you study the spirit of prophecy and even many of the Bible commentaries, the motivation of Peter and Judas are not that different.

Judas thought that by betraying Christ, he would force his hand, and he would have to become the messianic king in the line of David that they were expecting, who would destroy the Roman Empire and sit on his throne and reestablish Israel to its former glory.

But instead what happens, instead what happens is Jesus is allowing himself to be captured.

Peter's motivation is not that different than Judas's.

He swings the sword thinking that by swinging the sword and getting violent that now Christ would have to step in and become violent himself.

And that Christ would now throw off the yoke of bondage that the Roman Empire had put on the Jews.

And I want you to remember, it was a crushing, defeating form of oppression that the Romans put on the Jews at the time.

In fact, it was 1 of the most, the Roman Empire was 1 of the most oppressive empires or organizations or governments in all of Earth's history.

Christ had grown up watching this injustice, seeing how horribly treated the Jewish people were.

And here now, Peter thought for sure, if I strike at Malchus, this will begin the revolution and we can overthrow the Roman empire, cast out these degenerate, immoral men who stand in the place of religious leadership and Christ can elevate to his throne.

The shining sharp sword of Peter comes down on the side of Malchus' head.

On the right side, maybe Peter was striking to kill him, but he catches only the pinna of his ear, just the cartilage part, and off comes the air.

Can you imagine as that air in the darkness mixed with the the branded light of the torches flies off and he and hits the ground and bounces a couple times.

Matthew 26 verse 51 says this, and behold, 1 of them, which were with Jesus, stretched out his hand, drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priests and smote off his ear.

John gives you the details that his name was Malchus and it was his right ear.

And I believe John did this so that people could people would be able to confirm the story of the healing Even though John doesn't mention it 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.

Jesus says something incredible right there.

If violence is the way that you want to make change, violence is how you will suffer.

The talk I used to do when I ran a public health department called violence as a contagious disease What I found is that violence begets violence and that's what the studies show we were working with gang impacted young people in Los Angeles and specifically in Pasadena and Altadena where the bloods were in Pasadena and the Crips were in Altadena.

And between the 2 groups, there was this cycle of violence.

And the only way, based on some research out of the University of Chicago that you could actually stop the violence in some of these neighborhoods was that you had to have interrupters and you had to look at it the same way you do case Identification for diseases like tuberculosis.

It's the same principle with violence You've got to find the case the person who was injured and stop them Interrupt them from doing the next round of violence so that it does not escalate It is literally like that like they're talking about doing for the coronavirus violence must be interrupted It has to be stopped or as violence will simply beget violence So Jesus said listen if you take the sword you'll perish with the sword First 53 think is now that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels?

Do you think I need you to defend me if I wanted to right now?

I could pray to my father and he could send 10 000 angels If you remember the story of hezekiah and the king of assyria when he was coming against him.

There were 185 000 soldiers of the Assyrians waiting to take the capital city of Jerusalem and take Judah and when Hezekiah laid out the letters from the king of Assyria and prayed 1 angel of God Just 1 angel in 1 night wiped out 185, 000 men.

What would 10, 000 or 12 legions of angels do?

Christ was saying, I am in no danger that I do not accept.

Verse 54 of Matthew 26 says this, but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?

Jesus' approach was to understand the prophecies related to what was going on at the time.

And let me tell you something, church, with all the craziness that's going on in the world, and the justified response to injustice As it has been happening in America for a long time.

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Of Love and Revolution

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