An Ordinary Man: #10 I Have not Lost One

Are you seeking victory in life's battles? Discover the surprising truth about how surrender, not strength, leads to triumph in our spiritual journey. Join us as we explore the powerful example of Jesus, the lessons from Peter's impulsiveness, and the transformative principles of Christianity. Learn why true freedom and safety come from surrendering to Christ's will. Dive deep into this thought-provoking sermon and uncover the paradox of victory through surrender. John 18:1-11 (Sermon Given 1/08/2012)

Transcript

Good morning. So, last week, Ryan was, preaching on staying in the race. training and perseverance in the Christian life and the Christian walk. And this week, I'd like to build on that idea a little bit. I'd like to build on that idea by first asking, what exactly is the nature of our struggle and what is it that we're preparing for, and what is it that we're training for?                                     

As we continue with that athletic metaphor, it's obvious that, you need to know the nature of the competition you're in in order to know how to train. you can't train for one discipline and expect to do well in another one. for example, you can't train to be a shot putter and expect to be a good high jumper or trained to be a high jumper and expect to be a good shot putter.                                                 

When I was in college, we played water polo and one season, at the beginning of the season, there was a wrestler who wanted to do some cross training and stay in shape for, wrestling. And so he came out and he thought if he joined the water polo team, he would stay in shape and be in good shape by the time the wrestling season came around.                                      

Well, he jumped into the pool with us and, and, typically our workout started out with a warm up while the warm up was 500 yards swim in 500 yards. And all of us kind of always turned it into a race, even though it was just a warm up. And so, he jumps in the pool and we say swim 500 yards, which is, what would that be?                               

20 lengths of, 25 yard pool. And, we're all out, you know, waiting for him. He's around 15, ten lengths when everyone's done. And, he finally, finishes up and he wonders if, the workout is just about over. And we said, no, this is the warm up. And, he got out of the pool, and, we didn't see him again.                                     

he was in good shape, but he wasn't in the right kind of shape to, to compete in that, venue. now, applying that idea to our spiritual lives, the question is, what do we need to do in order to train for our spiritual contest? What am I seeking to gain victory over is an important question for us to ask.                                        

If we're going to train properly to be able to compete. Now, our contest is not a contest of physical endurance. Our contest is a contest against spiritual things. Our contest is against sin and death. we we contest against sin and its consequences. We contest against death and its inevitability. And what we're striving for is to have freedom.                               

We want the victor's crown. We want freedom from the power of sin and the consequence of death. So what are the skills necessary to compete? Well, and and develop, and so that we can be victorious in Christ. have we, already gained absolute victory over our enemy? Have we gained victory over the one who wants to kill, steal and destroy us?                              

have we competed to the end of the race? Well, we saw last week as Ryan was preaching that. No, we are still in the race. We're still competing for the prize. We're still, seeking to develop our spiritual strength to make us strong so that we can emerge at the end, victorious. So what is it that it takes for us to be victorious?                                      

Now, the answer to that question turns out to be another one of the Bible's paradoxes. What we're going to look at today is, against our normal inclinations when we think of our spiritual victory. we don't normally think that victory is won through surrender, but the Christian life is a victory that is won through surrender. Christ surrendered to his father's will.                                

And in doing that, he he won a victory for us. And we enter into that victory by surrendering to Christ ourselves. this is a paradox, because we normally think of victory not as a consequence of surrender. We think of defeat as a consequence of surrender. But today, as we continue in our series entitled, An Ordinary Man The Life and the writings of the Apostle Peter, we're going to look at Peter and his impulsive behavior in the garden.                                

when he took out his sword and chopped off, Malchus his ear, the representative that was sent out by the high priest to lead the continue in a soldiers to arrest Christ, we see, the difference between Peter's approach and Christ's approach, and it informs us on how we are to approach our spiritual victory. He thought he was acting, Peter.                                          

That is, to protect his master. But ironically, his actions were actually interfering with his master. Protecting us. his plan to deliver us and to deliver others were quite different than Peter's idea of how to, win victory. Peter was trying to save Christ, and if he would have been successful, he would have prevented Christ from saving us.                                          

if we allow Christ's victory to be won, we need to follow his example. how is our victory won? How do we fight and have victory over sin and death? It turns out not to be what we typically think of as, the answer. We need to train for the kind of victory, that we are called to win.                                   

So what is the nature of our struggle and what kind of training is required, to finish our race to find freedom and security in Christ? we need to ask ourselves, are we training correctly? if we're, training for a boxing match, then going out and training like a pole vaulter won't work if we're training to pole vault.                                 

Training like a boxer won't work. What is the nature of our struggle? And are we in the right kind of training to, see victory, to break free into the liberty and the security that we have in Christ? Our message this morning is entitled. I have not lost one. I have not lost one. And we're going to be looking at John chapter 18, verses one through 11.                                      

John chapter 18, verses one through 11. So pray with me, if you would, as we open up the Word of God. Heavenly father, Lord, your word is so filled, full of irony and paradox and surprise. And this is, again an example of, what happens is the opposite of what we would expect. And we pray, father, that we would learn from it, that we would gain insight into how it is that we can gain our own victory over sin and death.                                           

through Christ Jesus, that we would, set aside our own, inclinations and that we would learn from the wisdom of the Almighty how to train for victory. We pray that you'd bless the reading your word this morning and that we'd be edified by it. Lord. Lift us and deliver us, Lord, in your will and in your way.                                           

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Beginning at verse one, John 18 says this.                                           

When he had finished praying, Jesus left his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the high priests and Pharisees.                                           

They were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons. Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to him. Now check that out. Jesus had a full knowledge of what was going to happen to him. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, one out and asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, I am here.                                       

Jesus said, And Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. When Jesus said, I am he. They drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, who is it that you want? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, I told you, I am he. Jesus answered, if you're looking for me, then let let these men go. This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled.                                

I have not lost one of those. You gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup? The father has given me. What a paradoxical contrast we see in this passage.                               

You see this whole detachment of strong soldiers coming out to arrest Christ. They had weapons. Christ was unarmed. And there they come to arrest this teacher. This teacher who had been in the open places all the time. And they come and arrest him at night, in private, in the garden. And it seemed like an overwhelming force to bring out, to arrest an unarmed, passive teacher.                             

And then Christ spoke these three words I am he. And those three words were so charged with power and majesty that it caused a detachment of soldiers. Try to picture this the what kind of force would take? What it take to cause a detachment of soldiers and officials to be knocked back down on to the ground? These were all just words.                                      

They were just words. And there was so much power infused in these three words. I am he that it knocked to the ground. This detachment of soldiers. Now those words are just words. And if they would come out of our lips, I doubt much would happen if I said I am. He. No one's falling over. If you approach some, soldier and said, I am, he, it's not likely that, he would fall over.                                  

It would be far more likely that you would be knocked over. those words, from Christ's lips, however, displayed something. The power that was inherent in those words displayed that Christ's authority was established in this situation. He was the one who was in charge. He was the one who had the authority over the soldiers. It was by his authority that he voluntarily surrendered to them.                                

It wasn't by their strength or by their might that he was arrested. he voluntarily surrendered to him. And his surrendering. there a foreshadowing of his victory. Now, this is the strange paradox of the Bible, that there is victory in surrender. That there's a victory in surrender. And it's in Christ surrendering to the father's will, that we see the powerful mystery of the Bible.                                        

The victory that was won through surrender. And that's the theme of our message this morning. the theme of the message this morning is we are kept safe in Christ's surrender. We are kept safe in Christ. Surrender are an odd idea that somehow victory is won through surrender. Let's take a look at, verses eight through 11. I told you that I am he, Jesus answered.                            

If you're looking for me, let these men go. This happened so that the words he spoke would be fulfilled. I have not lost one of those you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the priest's servant, cutting off his ear. the servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away.                                

Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me? Christ, in surrendering to the soldiers, he was surrendering to his father's will. He was surrendering by his own authority to the will of the father. That he would drink the cup the father had given him. Now we know that the cup that the father had given him was the wrath of God.                                        

The cup that Christ was surrendering to drink was the wrath of God. That is, God's justified anger for all of the sins that man has ever committed. The cup of God's wrath was the anger God had for man's evil, for his evil thoughts, and for his evil deeds. And by surrendering to the soldiers, Christ was surrendering volition only by his own will.                                    

He was surrendering to the atonement, the atonement that he was going to offer up for our guilt. One man being arrested that night. That one man who was arrested that night was the only man who never, ever, ever deserve to be arrested. But yet he surrendered to the arrest. And notice that even there in his surrender. In the surrender in the garden, he secured the safe passage for his, disciples.                                  

So we see a foreshadowing of the cross even here, where he says, look, I, I'm giving myself to you. Let these guys go. Remember, he's the one in authority here. And in his surrender, he secures our safety. In his surrender, he secured the safety of the disciples there in the garden. And this certainly foreshadowed the cross in his surrender to the cross.                                

He secured our deliverance. He secured our deliverance from the guilt of our own sin. And from the doo doo doo penalty that is is, is on us. The one innocent for the multitude of the guilty. Normally we think of the fight for freedom being a war waged on a bloody battlefield, don't we? It's not that. It's not a normal thing to think of the fight for freedom to be one of surrender.                                           

We normally think of, the victor is one who's bloodied but emerged victorious, like, you know, this right here would be a picture of what we normally think of as victory. The that movie Braveheart, where, the idea if you watch the movie of Braveheart and you said, okay, fellas, the way we're going to, win this battle is through surrender.                                 

Well, that would be ridiculous. they would. The only thing that you could think of in terms of the bloody battlefield is that surrender means defeat. Yet the most spectacular victory ever won was won through surrender. Jesus surrendered to death. Jesus surrendered to the grave. Jesus surrendered to to the the chalice of sin being, poured out upon him, only to conquer death.                                           

In his resurrection, Jesus surrendered to the cup of God's wrath. The sin of all humanity in in surrendering to sin. He conquered sin. He surrendered to sin and death and, soundly defeated them both. So how do we enter in to the victory that he's won? The victory he won? he won for us. And, the first thing I want to point out is, we see, a mistake in Peter's example.                                       

Peter's example, towards victory. Is there is being trained for the wrong kind of thing. Peter's approach to victory over oppression and sin, won't work for us. So let's take a look at that first. again, the theme this morning. we are kept safe in Christ's surrender. And point number one is, our impulsive self-reliance can't save us.                                 

Our impulsive self reliance can't save us in this particular kind of battle that we're in against sin and death or our impulsive struggle, our impulsive self reliance will not save us. We need another strategy. Let's take a look at verses ten and 11 again. Verse ten says, Then Simon Peter, who had, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest servant, cutting off his right ear.                                           

The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup? The father has given me. Peter was ready for battle. He was ready to save his master. He acts alone and charges ahead with his sword drawn where he had that. I'm going to go down fighting kind of attitude. Now, the problem here is the same problem the wrestler had when he came out for the water polo team.                                 

He was in the wrong venue. He was trying he was in good shape, but he was trying to he was ready for a different kind of battle. Our battle is not a battle of flesh and blood. We're in a spiritual battle. We're in a battle of truth versus deception. Goodness versus evil. Life versus death. Not a battle of metal swords.                             

But, we're in a battle of ideological swords. We're not in a battle that can be won. through drawing blood. We're in a battle that can be won by, bringing out truth. a victorious game plan has to be, in accordance with the nature of our battle. For example, some of you chess guys might recognize this is a picture of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.                                      

back in, I think it was the 80s. These guys were, always engaged in kind of famous titanic battles in the chess world. And, one of the victories that Bobby Fischer, the American, had over Boris Spassky, was, an interesting strategy, almost a strategy of victory through surrender. He had, he had made what appeared to be one mistake after another.                                      

He for some reason, his the way he was playing the game, surprised Boris Spassky because he couldn't believe that this, this accomplished chess player was making one mistake after another. But he had, through surrender, somehow brought Boris into checkmate. It was an amazing, battle that, was one of the hallmarks of the chess world.                             

But, the illustration I would really like to illustrate with this idea of playing chess is that if, Mel Gibson came on to into a chess tournament with his sword, ready to battle, he wouldn't really, do. Well. It would be the wrong kind of venue. it wouldn't be. You couldn't, win a chess, championship with a sword ready to draw blood.                                  

Chess is a much more cerebral battle, and you have to prepare in a different way. Now, the Bible describes the human condition is we are, in our human sinful condition, where it describes us as being blown by the wind, blown by every inclination that would blow us this way or blow us that way. And we're subject to this being, being blown into this foolish thing and back over into this foolish thing.                                  

And we never, seem to escape our folly because we're always subject to this deception leading us this way, or that deception leading us that way. We, shift from one impulsive solution to another. Never winning, never gaining freedom, always trying. The next new thing. So what is the one way that God has established for us to have victory in this life of peril?                             

Again, the theme this morning is this. we are kept safe in Christ. Surrender. And point number one is our impulsive self reliance can't save us. And but point number two is this. That our victory is in our surrender to Christ, just as Christ's victory was in his surrender to the father's will. Our victory is in our surrender to him.                                        

Look at verse 11 again. Christ is our model. Here Jesus commanded Peter, put your sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the father has given me? He won a victory, for us by surrendering himself to his father's will and his pattern, or his model is key to our victory. As Christ surrendered himself for us. When we surrender ourselves to him, we become participants in his victory.                                        

we surrender to win. Now, I know that doesn't normally fit with our thinking. normally we think of surrender as defeat, but in a spiritual sense, that is the way we train for victory. Our training is to train ourselves to voluntarily abandon our own self reliance in favor, of surrendering to our reliance on Christ and on the victory he has won for us.                                     

Now, one good illustration of how this works. I don't know if any of you know who these two guys are. These two guys were hopeless drunks. They were. Their lives were completely ruined by their drunkenness, and they were desperate. they go by the name, doctor Bob and Bill W both of these men started attending a Bible study, seeking sobriety.                                          

The Bible study was called the Oxford Group. And after, becoming sober through this Bible study, they decided to take some of the principles they learned in this Bible study and, create an organization to help other drunks get sober. It's called Alcoholics Anonymous. And, some of the, the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous that they, well, all of the principles, but, the the first three principles I would want to just mention this morning, illustrate what we're talking about here.                                         

they developed a 12 step program based on the Bible study they learned from the Oxford Group. And the first step was to admit that they were powerless over alcohol and that their lives had become unmanageable. The first step was to recognize that they were in a in trouble, and they could do nothing about it on their own.                                 

And the second step was to believe that God could and would restore them if they trusted him. The second step, was that God would and could that God was powerful enough to deliver them from the grips of their alcoholism. And, he would restore them. And the third step was to turn their lives over to God, to surrender to God and to give themselves to God, because he is the one that is able to, restore them.                             

Now, those are only the first three steps, the 12 steps. And it goes on to to develop a moral inventory of all the things that you've done wrong and to make amends and so forth. But in these first three steps, we see the point that I'm trying to make this morning that our victory in Christ is in surrender to Christ, that we need to our, first of all, admit that we don't have the strength in ourselves to deliver ourselves from sin, that we need God's help.                                      

And the way we get God's help is by surrendering ourselves to God and to the victory that Christ has won for us. Our captivity to sin continues until we recognize our own incapacity to conquer our own sin and our need for help from God. And until we rely on Christ and surrender to Christ for his power to deliver us from sin's grip, we will remain captives.                                         

Our freedom begins at the moment of our surrender to our Savior. Our freedom expands as we daily surrender to Christ. Have you ever wondered why we backslide? We backslide because we stop surrendering. We backslide because we, get healthy, get a little bit healthy, and then we decide, well, we can take over now. I'm ready to take over.                                       

And that's why we backslide. Just as we gain salvation through surrender. We need to grow in our salvation through surrender. Our lives, our, life. the our victorious lives are our lives. Our lives submitted to the goodness and to the will of our Savior Jesus Christ. Again, this morning, our theme is we are kept safe in Christ.                                 

Surrender. What what what created, salvation was Christ surrendered to his father. And our own impulsive self-reliance can't save us, no matter how hard we try. No matter how, how strong we are. It's yielding that sword. We don't have what it takes to, deliver ourselves and not. Point number two is our victory is in our surrender to Christ.                                     

Today, I'd like to conclude by reading from Psalm 32. This is, sinner's cry for God's help. This is David's cry of surrender to God and help for him to deliver him from sin. Psalm 32, verses one through seven, beginning at verse one, it says, blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, and in whose spirit is no deceit.                                          

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning. All day for night and day, your hand was heavy upon me, and my strength was sapped. As in the summer heat. Then I acknowledge my sin to you did not cover up my inequities. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you forgave my forgave the guilt of my sin.                                

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you. Well, you may be found. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not touch him. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Let's pray. Father, what a paradox it is. We see it throughout scripture when we try to hide our sin, when we try to cover up our sin, when we try to deal with our sin on our own, our bones waste away and we lose our strength.                                         

But when we uncover our sins and confess them to you, when we look to you and surrender to you for your forgiveness, for your mercy, for your deliverance, you not only for forgive us, but you protect us from the coming judgment. You protect us from the rising waters. You deliver us from the consequences of this fallen world. We are grateful to you and for your love for us, Lord.                                          

And may we become skilled at persevering, running the race. The race of surrendering to you, yielding ourselves to you. Help us Lord, take up our cross daily. In Christ name. We pray.