Healing Life's Mistakes

We read the word of God from John chapter 18, the first 11 verses, and then two verses from Luke chapter 22. First we read from John chapter 18.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the book Chidron, where was a garden into which he entered and his disciples. And Judas also, who betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus often resorted there with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, who 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. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 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 spoke, Of them whom thou gavest me have I lost none. 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.

Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath. The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Then to Luke 22, Luke was a doctor, and so he records not just the surgery but the healing. Luke 22, verse 50, And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

And Jesus answered and said, Permit ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. Then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders who were come to him, Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and clubs? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me.

But this is your hour, and the power of darkness. Our Savior is the healer of the wounds of life. They came to arrest Jesus as though he were a common criminal, as though his picture were on every post office bulletin board in the land, as though he were on the ten most wanted list of the FBI.

They had torches and lanterns, but it was the Passover season. The moon would have been bright, but they thought he was going to run and hide. They thought they'd have to look behind the bushes and the trees and the caves.

The temple guard came with clubs, the Roman soldiers came with swords, and a mob was put together to arrest the Lord Jesus. But of course we understand why this happened. And Jesus tells us why when he said to them, This is your hour, and the power of darkness.

And the power of darkness was at work. Judas was standing there. Satan is a liar, and Judas was a hypocrite, and he betrayed the Lord.

And the traitor was standing there, and the traitor dared to use a kiss to identify the Savior. And Peter was there, and Peter dared to use a sword to try to protect the Savior. You see, Satan is a liar, and Satan is a murderer.

And Judas was a liar, and Peter almost became a murderer. How Satan enjoys getting a hold of the hands of God's people and creating havoc. Once he had used Peter's tongue, saying, Lord, be it far from thee that thou should ever go to a cross and die.

And Jesus turned on him and said, Get thee behind me, Satan. And now Satan wants to use Peter's hand. We admire Peter's courage.

We admire Peter's love. He loved his Savior, and courageously he wanted to protect his Savior, but his rashness created some serious problems. This is what Paul would call zeal without knowledge.

And zeal without knowledge has done a great deal of damage to the Lord's work. Peter's rashness led to our Lord's last healing miracle. He had healed multitudes of people, but this time it was a rather quiet miracle.

I would have expected something big and flashy. This was going to be his last healing miracle. He could impress this crowd.

He could encourage his disciples. Let's do something big and flashy. But instead, the Lord just simply heals the right ear of an obscure slave, and if Luke had not recorded it, we would not even have known about the healing.

All of the evangelists record the cutting. Only Dr. Luke tells us about the healing. But this is just like the Lord Jesus, isn't it? To be thinking about other people instead of himself.

It's just like the Lord Jesus when people are showing hatred and violence quietly to be showing love and confidence. It's just like the Lord Jesus to heal instead of wound. I wonder how many times you and I have wounded people.

We haven't used a sword. We might have used the sharpness of our tongue. I wonder how many ears we have cut off because of sharp words.

In the midst of all of this darkness and sin, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen. If this picture were painted—the Lord healing Malchus's ear, Peter standing there with blood on his sword, the soldiers, the mob, the torches, the lanterns—what would you name it? I think I'd reach over into Romans 5 and take a statement from Paul that says, Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. Look with me at this scene in the garden and see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We sing marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds my sin and my guilt. See with me, then, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as it is extended to three persons. First of all, his grace toward Peter, then his grace toward Malchus, and finally his grace toward you and me here in the Moody Church today.

You see, you and I were in that garden, and his grace has been extended to us. Look first of all at his grace toward the Apostle Peter. It's a good thing he did extend his grace toward Peter because this servant happened to be the servant of Caiaphas, the high priest, and if he had gone back with blood on his garments and holding his right ear in his hand, there would have been four crosses on Calvary, not three.

And Peter would have been on one of them. Peter made every possible mistake he could have made. You remember in the upper room the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, Now, when I was with you, you didn't carry an extra bag, you didn't carry extra weapons, but things are going to change now.

I'm going to go back to heaven. I'm not going to be there personally. My Holy Spirit will be there.

But if you don't have a sword, go out and get one. What's he saying? That we as Christians should run around fighting, trying to extend God's work with swords? No. No, when you read Church history, the blackest, worst pages are those pages where Christians picked up weapons and tried to extend the gospel by fighting.

God never called us to extend the gospel with swords. Our Lord was saying, Man, you're going out into a hostile world. You're going out where there are going to be dangers.

Now, you don't spread the gospel with a sword, but you may have to defend yourself someday. And Peter said, Lo, here are two swords. The Lord said, It's enough.

Peter had one of those swords. I wonder who had the other one. I wonder if he was tempted because of what Peter did to pull that sword out and fight.

He didn't. But Peter made every possible mistake he could make. To begin with, he had the wrong attitude.

Here was our Lord standing there with an attitude of submission. The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? And here's Peter with an attitude of rebellion and vengeance. He had said to Jesus, Though all else forsake you, I will go to prison and death with you.

And he almost did. That was a mistake. Jesus had taught them, and they had not learned, and we have not learned.

Love your enemies. Pray for them that persecute you. Do good to them that despitefully use you.

And Peter displayed the wrong attitude. He wanted vengeance. He wanted rebellion.

While Jesus was standing there in perfect submission and absolute heavenly composure, Peter made another mistake. He not only showed the wrong attitude, but he fought the wrong enemy. Paul was to write later on, We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Our problem is not Caiaphas and Annas and Pilate and Roman soldiers. Our problem is not Malchus, that slave. Our problem is Satan.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. This is your hour and the power of darkness. The prince of darkness cometh, said Jesus.

So Peter was fighting the wrong enemy. We've done the same thing. Your problem is not your boss.

It's Satan who's using your boss. Your problem is not your wicked next-door neighbors or upstairs neighbors. It's Satan using those neighbors.

If you wrestle against flesh and blood, you'll never win the battle. He showed the wrong attitude, and he fought the wrong enemy, and he used the wrong weapon. How many mistakes can you make? He used the wrong weapon.

Instead of using the spiritual weapons that the Lord Jesus was using, Peter tries to use physical weapons. He uses a sword. Years later, Paul was to write in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

I wonder if he wasn't thinking about Joshua when Joshua pulled down the strongholds of Jericho and conquered that city with spiritual weapons. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't want Peter to try to fight spiritual battles with physical weapons. Moses tried that.

God said, Moses, we aren't going to deliver Israel from Egypt by going around killing people. It's not a sword that you're going to use. It's a rod, the rod of God.

Peter had to learn that he used the wrong weapon. He did learn his lesson. He learned that the sword that he's supposed to use is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6, verse 17, and Hebrews 4, verse 12, tells us, For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and the marrow, and it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And here's the physical sword, and here's the spiritual sword, and the physical sword hits living people and gives them death, but the spiritual sword touches dead people and gives them life. A physical sword gets duller and duller as you use it, but the spiritual sword gets sharper and sharper, and the physical sword cannot be used to accomplish spiritual purposes.

A few weeks later, Peter was going to stand up and face thousands of people at Pentecost, and he's going to take the sword of the Spirit and slay 3,000 of them who cry out, Man and brethren, what must we do? And they're going to be saved. The battles that you and I fight in this world are not going to be won with fists and muscles. They're going to be won by the Spirit of God taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and fighting in our lives.

He used the wrong weapon. He made another mistake. He trusted the wrong power.

He was trusting his own good right arm, and that right arm many a time had thrown out the nets. I'm sure Peter was a much better fisherman than he was swordsman. It's the providence of God that he didn't get just a fraction of an inch over.

His goal was to cut that man's skull. His goal was to kill him. Our Lord Jesus Christ must have, in his own providential power, deflected that blade and the man's right ear was cut off.

But you see, Peter was using the wrong power. He was trying to accomplish a spiritual purpose with fleshly power. And the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.

It's through the Holy Spirit of God. It's through the power of prayer. Ah, but Peter had been sleeping when he should have been praying.

And Peter had been talking when he should have been listening. And Peter had been arguing when he should have been submitting. And Peter had been running ahead when he should have been waiting.

That's probably what happened the last time you and I cut somebody's ear off. He used the wrong power, and he had the wrong purpose. His purpose was to protect Jesus and keep him from being arrested.

And that's the very reason why Jesus was in the garden. He went to that garden to pray because he knew that Judas knew where he was. And it was all part of a divine plan that Judas should lead the mob into the garden and Jesus should surrender.

Not fight, surrender. Not surrender to a mob, surrender to the Father. And if it's the Father's will that the mob take him, so be it.

But Peter had not yet learned the meaning of surrender. Peter was going through life fighting, defending, grasping. He had to learn that simple lesson that we don't have to protect the Lord Jesus.

Certainly it's wrong for us to keep the Lord Jesus from the purpose that God has for him. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ showed grace toward Peter. Peter made every mistake possible.

And yet Jesus showed grace to him. He showed grace to him in two ways. Number one, he rebuked him.

He said to him, put up your sword into the sheath. He rebuked him. He rebuked him from the word.

I recall several years ago I was preaching a series of sermons on James, and while I was preparing one of the messages, the Lord began to rebuke me through the word. I tried to shove it off to one side, and I couldn't do it. The longer I studied and the more I worked, the less I was accomplishing, and the Spirit of God just kept rebuking me through the word.

He reminded me of a time when I had pulled out my sword and cut off some ears. So I had to put down my pen and turn my chair around and reach for the telephone and dial a long-distance number and wash the wounds and apologize. And then when I turned back again to my sermon, God began to speak to me.

The hardest thing about preaching is not standing in this pulpit. The hardest thing about preaching is preparing the message for this pulpit. And Jesus rebuked Peter.

Now, he didn't say, get rid of your sword. He said, put it up. There may be a time when you will need a sword for protection, but this is not it.

God has not given the sword to the Church. He has given the sword to the State. Romans 13 says, those who are in political office are the bearers of the sword, not the Church.

The Church has no right to take up arms unless, and if you read Church history you'll understand this, unless it is for the protection of the gospel. One of the high and holy hours in my life was standing in a little country cemetery outside the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, by the grave of John Hunter. John Hunter was one of the great Scottish Christians.

He was one of the covenanters who opposed the encroachments of a godless Church upon true believers, and he died because of it. There have been some few times in history when, to defend the gospel, men had to lay down their lives. But Peter, this was not the time for fighting.

You'll never promote the gospel by going around killing people. There may come a time, Peter, when you'll need that sword. Put up the sword right now into its sheath.

And then he showed grace to him, not only by rebuking him, but by repairing the damage. He said, Peter, you've created some awful damage here. Look at that fellow.

He cut his ear off. And all this is happening in split seconds. The mob moves in.

They uncover the lanterns and torches. The light blazes out. The disciples are all stirred up.

Jesus steps forward. He says, I am he. And those words had such power, the whole crowd fell back.

That alone should have told Peter that Jesus was pretty well in charge of the situation. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can heal the damages that we cause. I'm glad he does.

Oh, dear friend, I am glad that when in my zeal, in ignorance, I have wounded somebody, I'm glad I can come to the Lord and say, Lord, together, let's do whatever we can to heal that. And Jesus Christ can do it. Years later, Peter was going to write in his first letter, Love covers a multitude of sins.

Now, the trouble with some Christians is this. They keep pouring salt into those same wounds. There are some Christians who don't want people to forget that they wounded them and they keep bringing it up.

And this is wrong. The Lord Jesus said to Peter, look, Peter, you've made a mistake. You've wounded this man.

Now I'm going to heal it. I'm going to correct it. And we're going to forget about it.

And the only reason Luke records this healing is to encourage me to say to you and to say to my own heart, Jesus Christ can heal the wounds of life. His grace toward Peter. Now, secondly, we see his grace toward Malchus.

If you were the Lord Jesus, would you have healed Malchus? Of course you would have. I myself wouldn't have done it. Malchus, a slave, a piece of property.

He belongs to Caiaphas, the high priest. He is our enemy. He's learned to be our enemy from his boss.

A slave, his ear, good enough for him, good enough for him. He listened with that ear when Caiaphas said, go down and make sure that Jesus is arrested. He ought to have his ear.

He ought to have his head cut off. Sometimes we Christians talk like that. After all, Caiaphas was a slave.

He was an enemy. He had come to lay hold on the Lord Jesus. Would you have shown grace to him, to Malchus, who was there representing Caiaphas? No, I doubt that I would have, but Jesus did.

And in so doing, he was practicing what he preached. I wonder if it flashed through anybody's mind what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount as he stepped up and said to his arresters, permit me to do this. And they stood awestruck, and he healed the ear.

I wonder if anybody remembered when he said in the Sermon on the Mount, do good to them that despitefully use you. Oh, you've heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemy.

We have a hard time loving our enemies. In fact, some Saints have a hard time loving the brethren. You see, Jesus Christ said, I've not come to destroy men's lives.

I've come to save them. One day the disciples said, this village will not accept us. Shall we call fire from heaven? Wouldn't that be a great testimony? Fire from heaven to burn up a village.

Jesus rebuked them and said, you don't know what kind of spirit you're showing. I haven't come to destroy men's lives. I've come to save them.

And the Lord Jesus Christ shows love for hatred. Not only does he in his grace take care of Peter's stupid blunders, but in his grace he touches his enemies and he heals them. Now we don't know what happened to Malchus as a result of this.

I wonder if he got saved. We have no record of it. But it does say this to me, two things.

Number one, I should not take advantage of my enemy. I should try to help him. And number two, miracles don't save people.

Oh, I've heard folks say, oh, if my brother-in-law saw a miracle, he'd get saved. Don't kid yourself. Now people don't get saved from seeing miracles.

They get saved when they realize they need Jesus Christ as their Savior, and he is the Savior. And here's Malchus who didn't see a miracle. He experienced a miracle.

And you would have thought he would have fallen down and said, my Lord and my God, if you can do that, we have no record that he did. I have visited in hospital rooms where Christians have been called home and unsaved people have been healed. And yet I don't hear the unsaved people saying, oh, I'm so grateful to God for what he did.

Here he's healed me of this terrible disease or this affliction, and I should give my life to him. No, they take it for granted. God sends his sunshine upon the just and the unjust.

His rain comes down upon the evil and upon the good, and they take it for granted. Every day, God is performing miracles for unsaved people, for people who lay hands on his Son, and they just accept it and never say thank you. His grace toward Malchus, he healed him.

You know what? Anybody who has the power to heal ought to have the power to destroy. If Jesus, by his touch, could heal, could he not, by his touch, destroy? Which leads us to our third consideration. Our Lord showed his grace to Peter.

Love covers a multitude of sins. Our Lord showed his grace to Malchus. Love forgives the enemy, and love heals the wound.

But he also showed his grace to you and me, because you and I were there in the garden. Dear friend of mine, the Lord Jesus Christ could have delivered himself. He could have.

If he had the power to heal a man's ear, he can deliver himself. If simply by stepping forward and saying, I am he, he completely stultifies those people and they fall backward, he's got the power to deliver himself. You remember he said, Could I not ask my Father, and he would give me twelve legions of angels? That's a lot of angels.

A Roman legion would have 6,000 people in it. That would be 72,000 angels. I read in the Old Testament that one angel killed 185,000 people.

So if you've got yourself 72,000 angels, by my calculations they could wipe out some three billion people. But he didn't do it. They were treating him like a criminal, but he surrendered.

They robbed him of his legal rights, but he surrendered. They robbed him of his human rights. They treated him like less than a human, but he surrendered.

And he knew where it was going to end, being crucified, but he surrendered. Jesus, knowing all things, said, I am he. You know why he did it.

Of course you know why he did it. He did it because there was a cup for him to drink. Quite a contrast.

Peter's sword, our Lord's cup. The sword speaks of vengeance. The cup speaks of forgiveness.

The sword speaks of killing. The cup speaks of making a lie. The sword speaks of rebellion and pride.

I'm going to have it my way. The cup speaks of surrender. I'm going to do it God's way.

The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? What was that cup? That was the cup of judgment when he was made sin for you and me. Now, I should drink that cup, and you should drink that cup. Malchus should drink that cup, but he drank it.

He received at the hand of his Father all of the judgment and all of the suffering that we should have felt, and he did it because he loved us. And so I say that there in the garden he showed grace toward you and me. He didn't resist.

He surrendered. He didn't fight. He yielded.

Why? Because he loved you. If Peter had had his way, we wouldn't be here today. But Peter didn't have his way.

God had his way. And my Savior took that cup, and he drank the cup of suffering to the very dregs. Why? Because you need to be saved, and I need to be saved.

That's why he did it. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, O, but he lay down his life for his enemies. God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The next time you look in the mirror and you see your ears, or the next time you reach up and you feel your ear, or you put your glasses on and you're glad your ears are there to catch them, would you think of Malchus? Would you remind yourself that one dark night Peter did a very stupid thing, but Jesus in his grace corrected it? Malchus did a very stupid thing in trying to arrest Jesus, but Jesus in his grace healed him and didn't judge him. And would you remind yourself that you and I have done stupid things? We've been zealous but ignorant, and only the Lord Jesus can heal those wounds. And then the next time you take a look or a feel at that right ear, just remember Calvary.

Just remember that in that garden Jesus said, Give me the cup. There are sinners that need to be saved. I'll die for them.

Have you trusted him? Have you trusted him? Have you opened your heart to him and said, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. You died for me. Come into my heart and save me.

To think that you could have called legions of angels and been delivered, but instead you died for me. Such love constrains me to answer his call, follow his leading, give him my all. We thank you, O Lord, that the Lord Jesus Christ died for us, that in your love you gave him, and in his love he died.

We're thankful that this morning hour here at the Moody Church in Chicago, people can trust Christ as their Savior and be born again. We pray that many will come, and so do. We're thankful that we as believers can see the wounds of life healed.

O Lord, deliver us from keeping alive those wounds. They fester. They cause pain.

I pray that you'll give us the grace of forgiveness. May the love in our hearts cover a multitude of sins. We give thanks this day for so great a salvation, and Father, we would yearn to share this salvation with others.

And so bless our witness and bless this invitation. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.