My message today is titled, “Fight or Flight.” And I hope that the reason for that title would be evident from the content of the verses we just read. We know from this text and the other gospels that all the disciples fled as a result of this incident, and also we see Simon Peter trying to put up a fight by taking out his sword and cutting of the ear of the high priest’s servant. That’s the basis for calling it, Fight or Flight.
The medical professionals tell us that fight or flight is associated with a physiological reaction which occurs in humans or animals in response to a perceived harmful attack, or a threat to survival. It is an automatic, instinctive response that activates our nervous and muscular systems in order to help us survive. It is natural. It is instinctive. It is normal. But in the realm of the spiritual that which is natural and physical is not necessarily the kind of reaction that is in alignment with God’s purposes.
And we find that natural vs spiritual response illustrated in this text. The disciple’s reaction to the mob coming to arrest Jesus would have been pretty typical. It was a natural reaction. Some fled, and some attempted to fight. That is the way the body is engineered. We are told in Mark 14 that even as the disciples fled, one young man, probably Mark himself, was caught and he slipped out of his clothes and ran away naked. And of course, we know what Peter did. He drew a sword to defend Christ. He was going to fight the spiritual battle in his own strength, with his skill and bravado.
I think that the church is often guilty of similar responses as we try to find our way in a hostile world. We tend to try to use human ingenuity to accomplish spiritual goals. But when we do so we fail to understand Ephesians 6 which says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
Jesus made the same principle clear in this chapter, in vs 36. Jesus answered to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” So if, as Jesus indicates, the kingdom of God is spiritual, not physical, and our enemies are spiritual and not physical, then it stands to reason that the church’s strategies must be spiritual and not physical.
So Jesus and the disciples climb the Mount of Olives in the dark of night to engage in a spiritual battle, the battle between the will of God and the will of man. It was in the Garden of Eden that man first encountered spiritual warfare with the enemy of his soul. There the battle with Satan was lost by man, there he forfeited his right to rule over the earth and gave it over to Satan by yielding his obedience to Satan’s will. Now Jesus as the second Adam enters another garden to do battle with Satan. The issue again is God’s will versus the will of Satan.
But the disciples react in the flesh instead of according to the Spirit. So Christ rebukes Peter in vs.11 saying, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” The Lord Jesus had known ahead of time how all this was going to come about. He knew that Judas had planned to betray Him there. And yet He did not try to avoid arrest by fleeing from the soldiers or by planning a defense. Instead, we are told that Jesus went boldly out to meet the mob. I’m sure it would have been possible for Jesus to have easily eluded them in the dark in the olive grove. But that wasn’t the Father’s will. And Jesus had prayed in the prayer recorded in Luke 22 that He was concerned that the Father’s will be done, and not His own.
John’s record of this event in the Garden of Gethsemane is selective. He doesn’t make an attempt to mention a lot of what the other gospel writer’s have already written about. Out of all the events that transpired in the garden, John emphasizes the fact that Jesus initiates His own capture. John doesn’t mention the night spent in prayer, or the sweat drops of blood that Christ spilled as He prayed. He doesn’t mention the disciples falling asleep. He doesn’t mention Judas’s kiss of betrayal. And what we can deduce from that is that what John does record is to illustrate certain facts that he felt served his greater purpose. John wasn’t writing a biography, he was writing a gospel. As he said in chapter 20 vs.30, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” So John emphasizes that Jesus went boldly forth to offer Himself as a sacrifice by doing the will of the Father.
That sacrificial love is illustrated in vs.8, in which Jesus says in effect, “Take Me, and let these go.” That is the same sacrificial love that takes Jesus to the cross for us all. In bearing our judgment for sin, He said in a sense the same thing to the Father’s justice. “Take Me, and let these people go.”
So what John has recorded for us is selected to teach us certain truths. Now there are many applications that one could get from this passage. But there is one particular application that I would like to make, which may seem like a stretch perhaps, but which I think is appropriate. Rather than doing my normal exegesis of each verse, I want to use this text to make an application that I feel God has laid on my heart this morning; and that is the purpose of the church. I see in this situation an illustration of how the church is to respond in a hostile culture.
Now I think this application is justified because these 11 disciples represent the church. It took only 10 Jewish men to constitute a synagogue, or a local assembly. So these 11 men were Christ’s church. We know from other scriptures, particularly Ephesians 2:20, that the apostles are the foundation of the church. And at this point there is very little else but the foundation. Christ has spent the last three years building the foundation, teaching the disciples the doctrines of the kingdom of God.
You will remember that Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” So the disciples were the foundation stones upon which Christ would build His church, and Christ is the cornerstone. But the main point I want to emphasize is they are the church at that point. Eleven guys, and they have all sorts of shortcomings, and they are facing all sorts of challenges, and their response is often completely wrong and yet Christ has chosen them to be the foundation of His church.
So the Lord will use this situation and others like it to teach them so that when Jesus is no longer with them in person, they will know how to lead the church in order that the church will not only survive, but thrive. The disciples will learn from even their failures how to continue Christ’s ministry.
But on this particular night, it must have seemed to the disciples that the gates of hell were prevailing against the church. And so while Peter attempts to fight, and the other disciples flee into the darkness, Jesus stands firm knowing that He is acting according to the Father’s will.
However, notice that Jesus’s promise to the church that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, is conditional. His promise is conditional upon the fact that it has to be His church, and He has to be the builder of it. If He is, then there is the promise that hell will not prevail against it. But if it is not His church, and He is not the builder of it, then there is no such promise.
As a pastor, I am routinely asked from time to time about our plans for this church. What are our goals? What is our long term plan? Where are we going with this thing? I guess those are valid concerns. But I can’t help but feel that they are often prompted by unbiblical expectations. And that is because the Christian community today has a picture in their mind of what they think church should be, what the church should look like. That vision may have been influenced by many factors, such as what seems to be working elsewhere, what church was like when they grew up, or what they’ve been told the church has to do to reach our modern culture.
And I can tell you that from a pastor’s perspective that answering this question isn’t easy for me either. There are many, many books out there which purport to tell you how to build a church. Or what a successful church should look like. Rick Warren wrote a very popular book many years ago now which had a tremendous impact on the modern evangelical church, called “The Purpose Driven Church.” There are some things in that book that sound good. But there are also some things that I feel are misdirected. Namely, that there is a formula, a tried and true business style model for how to build a successful church.
Whether Rick Warren intended to imply it or not, the average church pastor who uses that book as a template does so hoping that it will result in building a large church. Because Rick Warren has a huge church and he used that formula. And because large numbers are what practically everyone thinks is emblematic of a successful church. How many people you have, how many Sunday morning services you conduct, what kind of programs you have and how big your building is indicates how successful you are.
But for the most part I have disregarded such handbooks for church growth. Instead, several years ago, I began a study in the book of Acts on Sunday mornings because I wanted to address some of these fundamental questions concerning the church. And what better source is there to determine how God builds His church than to study the first church in Jerusalem from the book of Acts. However, that was a long time ago, and some of you weren’t here at that time to benefit from that study.
So I want to go back to Acts chapter 2 in order to refresh our memory. If we are going to have a church which is Christ’s church, and which is built by God, which will stand against the gates of hell, then I can think of no better example than the church in chapter 2 of Acts which was birthed by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And first of all we note that 3000 people were saved as a result of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost. But don’t focus on the numbers and miss the important part. The key is that if you’re going to have a church that is built by God, and protected by God, then it must start with a saved congregation. The church is the congregation of the saints. Saints aren’t dead people, they are saved people.
And church buildings that are filled with unsaved people aren’t actually Christ’s church. The people may be the social pillars of the community, they may have all the trappings of the church, they may look like what we think churches are supposed to look like, but if they are not made up of born again saints then they do not constitute the church according to God. That eliminates a whole lot of so called churches right there. Nice people practicing religion in pretty buildings does not constitute a church. The first church in Jerusalem did not even have a building. But the church is made up of sinners who have received and believed the truth of Jesus Christ are granted righteousness, resulting in salvation. In Acts 2:47 it says, “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” So a saved congregation is the first prerequisite.
And then again in Acts chapter 2 we find in one verse the purpose of the church, as designed by God, and given to us. Acts 2:42 gives the divine blueprint they followed: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Those are the four essential elements that make up the actual function and life of the church.
To be saved is to become a disciple of Christ, to follow Christ. That’s what Jesus’s mandate was to the apostles as recorded in Matthew 28:19. Go into all the world and make disciples. And a disciple is a learner, a student. So then the first order of the church is to teach Christ’s doctrine. To teach Christians how to live as Christ would have us live according to what Christ had taught them. This was the primary responsibility of the apostles.
And in Ephesians we read that as the church goes forward, Christ gave to the church first apostles and prophets, then evangelists, and then pastor’s/teachers. So if we are going to pattern ourselves according to God’s blueprint for the church, then the church must continually devote themselves to the teaching of the word of God. And we do that not just so that we might have an intellectual knowledge of the Bible, but so that we might know the truth of God, that we might know how to live as Christ taught, and that we might be obedient to that truth. That is sanctification, being conformed to the truth of God.
A godly church then is made up of saved people who apply themselves to the teaching of the word, and then are obedient to the word, so that they might be witnesses to the world. The purpose of teaching is that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. That we might become in practice like Christ, that we might have the mind of Christ. We have become righteous by justification through Christ, now we must be sanctified in practice like Christ. We must be obedient to what we are taught. It is to no advantage whatsoever if we meet to have a worship service, but there is no evidence of the transforming power of God in our lives. If the church is filled with people living in adultery, if it’s filled with people who are living in sin, who are still enslaved to sin, then what kind of witness is that to the world? It’s a self aggrandizing exercise in hypocritical religion. The purpose of the church is to make disciples that look like Christ and act like Christ as they live like Christ.
We conform to the image of Christ because He was conformed to the image of the Father. He was obedient to the Father’s will. Hebrews 5:8 says, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” That’s what Jesus was referring to in His rebuke of Peter. He had prayed in the Garden in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” He was apprehensive in His flesh not at the prospects of death, but at the prospects of taking the sin of the world upon Himself. But when the mob came, Jesus was obedient to the Father’s will saying to Peter; “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”
Listen, we can learn from this example that God’s purposes are not always apparent to men because they are counterintuitive to the common sense of the natural man. God’s purposes do not always lead to our immediate exaltation. His purposes sometimes takes us through thorny ways before we meet the joyful end. As the hymn writer says,
“Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”
So the first priority of the church is continually devoting yourselves to the apostles teaching. That’s the word of God. Because the word of God has power to transform lives. Programs don’t have that power. A lot of so called Christian music doesn’t have that power. Activities and outreaches don’t have that power. But the word of God has transformative power as Heb 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Now I don’t want to neglect the other three essentials of the church; fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. But the teaching of the word is a priority, and then fellowship comes from the unity we have in the truth. Our church name is the Beach Fellowship. Fellowship means communion, with God first and then with one another in the truth of God. We talked about that last week; Christ prayed for unity. And we discovered that unity is found in the truth. Not in organizations, but in truth and never at the expense of truth. When we have fellowship in the truth, then we are able to build up one another, love one another, help one another as we grow in our faith.
And then the breaking of bread could be referring to the Lord’s Supper. But in all likelihood it was just simply the daily taking of meals together. Vs.46 says they were breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” Eating and sharing together is a basic form of fellowship. That’s why we eat breakfast together when we meet at the men’s prayer breakfast or other events as a church. We believe it promotes fellowship. In sharing a meal together, we get to know one another, so that we might be able to meet one another’s spiritual needs.
And of course prayer is the last vitally important component. I spoke about prayer at the beginning of chapter 17. And for three weeks we studied Christ’s prayer as a template for our own. As I said then, if we are a praying church, then all the other disciplines of the church would be elevated. But even in prayer, it must be in truth. Prayer must be grounded in Biblical truth, or it is not effective prayer. And as James 5:16 tells us, the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. The key is that we are righteous, and then God hears our prayers.
When you have those four vital aspects of the church in effect, then you will see the result noted in Acts 2:43 which says, “everyone had a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” Though we may no longer see the same kind of miracles and wonders of the apostolic age, God’s power still remains on display in the church. What could be more miraculous than giving life to people who are dead in sin? He heals people of their hurts, puts broken homes back together, and brings people out of the bondage of sin to Christ. In short, He transforms lives. When the church follows God’s design, He will do marvelous and powerful things in individual lives before a watching world.
But it has to start with a saved congregation who submit to the teaching of the word of God and then are obedient to the will of God in their daily lives. Even though many times in the Jerusalem church to obey God meant that they would experience suffering. We too suffer some times if we are going to be obedient to God. We may suffer the loss of a job which does not honor God. Or we suffer the loss of friendships that are of the world or that are ungodly associations. There are lots of ways that we might suffer, but through thorny ways, God leads us to a joyful end.
The church that is willing to suffer with Christ is a church that experiences a sense of awe or reverence for the Lord. That’s what is meant by they felt a sense of awe. It doesn’t mean they were oohing and ahhing over the drama of the miracles. It means that they felt a holy reverence for the Lord. They had a reverence for the holiness of God. And if you read further in Acts, you will see the Lord’s response against Ananias and Sapphira who did not revere the Lord as holy. So God struck them dead in the middle of the church service because God wanted to teach us that He demands reverence.
And then there is one more point that I would like to make from the example given to us in Acts. It says in Acts 2:47 that “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” If you want a formula for success in the church there it is. You start with God saving men and women, and then the church being transformed and sanctified by the teaching of the word of God, add fellowship and prayer and then you add to that the reverence for the holiness of the Lord, and you end up with God adding to the church day by day those that were being saved. That’s God’s church growth plan.
It has nothing to do with building projects. It has nothing to do with appointing committees or Sunday School directors. It has everything to do with being saved according to the truth, then taught the truth of the word and then being obedient to it and living it out in the community.
I don’t think I need to belabor this point any longer this morning. I’m sure most of you are here today because you want to follow Christ’s teaching. You want to be transformed, to be set free, and to be a witness to the world of the saving power of Christ. But neither do I want you to be discouraged or distracted by what the world might tell you is important. The disciples acted on their instincts, they acted in their own strength, and they acted out of an emotional, natural response. And they found themselves at odds with the purposes of God. After the resurrection, Jesus will spend the next 40 days to open their minds so that they would understand the scriptures so that they would be ready to take charge of His church when He left to go back to His Father.
But we have an advantage that they didn’t have. We have the advantage of learning from their mistakes. We have the advantage of the complete scriptures right in our hands. So the teaching of the word is the first priority of this church. Because it is everything we need for life and happiness. As 2Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Let’s not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the scriptures tell us, and let us continually devote ourselves to the teaching of the word of God through pastors/teachers “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” That is how the church is supposed to look. That is the plan of God for the church. That we all grow to mature men and women, being conformed to the full measure of the image of Christ.