Moments before Jesus was seized he was at the Mount of Olives with his followers. Overwhelmed with anguish he began praying earnestly, even sweating drops of blood, as he came to terms with the will of his Father in heaven. As he prayed most all of his disciples slept. But not for long.
A crowd was forming just outside the garden. The chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders were preparing to take Jesus by force in the night. With their swords drawn and clubs in hand, they were coming to arrest Jesus. They were led by Judas, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. They didn’t have Most Wanted posters back then, so they arranged for Judas to kiss Jesus on the cheek to insure that the right man would be arrested.
Was Jesus leading a rebellion?
As Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they drew their swords. One person asked, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" Luke 22:49 (NIV) But it was too late. Another person had already struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But it was not to be. Jesus would not allow violence. Jesus intervened by saying, " 'No more of this!' " And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. He turned to his would-be captors and said, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour when darkness reigns." Luke 22:51-52 (NIV)
What a provocative question. Did you notice what Jesus said? Am I leading a rebellion? Am I leading an insurrection? Am I leading a revolution, an insurgence, an uprising, a revolt? Must I be taken by force? The short answer to Jesus’ question was obviously "no." He wasn’t organizing a political movement to overthrow the government. He wasn’t assembling a clandestine band of dissidents to incite riots in Jerusalem. He wasn’t conducting protests through his surrogates and minions. He wasn’t advocating violence, such as what we see when one class of people overthrows another class of people. There was nothing underground or secret about what he was doing.
Jesus was not leading a rebellion, but he was leading a revolution!
But was Jesus leading a revolution? You bet he was. He was shaking things up. He was turning institutions like the government and the religious establishment on their heads. He was advocating radical transformation and change. He was inciting moral upheaval and spiritual renewal. He was stirring the collective conscience of a nation. He was proclaiming the truth in no uncertain terms. He was restoring the ancient order of things. He was inspiring the masses with a message of hope and peace.
In this sense, Jesus was leading a revolution. This was a revolution that would soon shake the world down to the core of its foundation. Things would never be the same again. This Easter I would suggest that Jesus is every bit the revolutionary today as he was two thousand years ago. There are several reasons for this.
Jesus came to overthrow the power of darkness.
Darkness doesn’t have any existence by itself. The only way to create darkness is to remove whatever light source threatens it. Darkness is the absence of light. To create darkness in here, we would need to seal off the windows and doors. Turn off the lights and video projector. Who knows what else?
In the Bible, darkness represents life without God. Men live in darkness because they remove God from their lives. They block him out. They suppress the truth. 1 John 1:5 (NIV) says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Darkness comes when we stop paying attention to the word of God. Darkness comes when we block out God’s laws and wisdom and go our own separate way. If we wanted to make it even darker in here we could remove every Bible. We could unplug the sound system and duct tape the mouths of anyone who might speak of God, starting with me. We could remove any symbol that might remind us of God including crosses, communion elements, you name it.
Darkness is the absence of God. It is ignorance about God. These are dark days. Our entertainment is so often filled with darkness. Consider the music we enjoy and the books we read. Consider the television shows and movies we watch. It was exciting to see "The Passion of the Christ" do so well in theaters. But Jay Leno quipped that we now seem to be moving in the wrong direction. The top box office hits in recent weeks have been "Dawn of the Dead" and then "Hellboy".
But it is more than entertainment. It is our politically correct workplaces. It is our public schools, where the name of God offends and prayers are silenced. It is the court houses, where the Ten Commandments can no longer be displayed. It is our unwillingness to attend church faithfully, where we encounter God’s word through worship and Bible study. The darkness is not advancing because it is more powerful. It is advancing because we so often choose to shut out God’s word from our lives, our routines, and our schedules. Remember, the tiniest light drives out the darkness.
Jesus boldly shined the light of a knowledge of God into the darkness of our lives.
Jesus was a revolutionary because he overthrew the power of darkness. He entered our world and boldly shined the light of a knowledge of God into our darkened lives. He drove out all ignorance of God by proclaiming the truth. He made it virtually impossible to ignore God, to suppress the truth, and to shut God out.
John 1:4-5 (NIV) describes Jesus this way. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." In John 8:12 (NIV) Jesus declares, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." In John 12:46 (NIV) Jesus says, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."
The revolution continues today wherever light is allowed to drive out the darkness. It continues wherever the truth of Christ is proclaimed and celebrated.
Jesus came to overthrow the power of sin.
The Bible tells us there is a reason people choose to ignore God. John 3:19-21 (NIV) says, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Sin is a lot like mold. It thrives in the dark and damp areas of our lives. It seems harmless enough, but it is the unknown cause of so much sickness and suffering. If left alone, over time it can overtake an entire home and even cause death.
Jesus defeats the power of sin in our lives in a number of important ways. First of all, Jesus is light. Light drives out the darkness. Light makes it impossible for sin to thrive, or even exist. Light stops the growth of mold.
Every time we encounter Jesus Christ who is the light in worship, Bible study, prayer, or even conversation, something life-changing happens. Through the simple act of Bible reading, for example, God shines his powerful light deep into the inner recesses of our hearts, where sin reigns in darkness. In the Bible we're shown the contrast between light and darkness. We find ourselves being challenged to love God from the innermost parts of our hearts. We're challenged to set aside greed, anger, lust, worry, jealousy, and pride. We're challenged to take responsibility for our sins and to confess our sins to God. We're challenged to be pure and holy.
It is hard to love the deeds of darkness once we have seen the light. A few years ago our lower level was flooded by heavier than normal spring rains. I remember removing a piece of drywall which looked perfectly fine on one side. But as I did, it practically crumbled in my hands. The back of that piece of drywall was black and green and covered with fuzz. The mere sight of that mold motivated me to gut our entire lower level. We replaced the drywall. We replaced studs. We bleached everything.
Christ's light exposes our sins and motivates us to eradicate sin from our lives.
This is the effect that Christ’s light has on our lives. He exposes our sins. He shows us the dark, moldy side of our hearts. He motivates us to eradicate sin from our lives.
This too is the work of God in our lives. It is not enough that Christ illuminates our sin. He must also help us eliminate it. This is what Christ’s death on the cross was all about. Jesus was forgiving us our sins. John 3:17 (NIV) tells us, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." 1 John 1:9 (NIV) says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Christ exposes our sin not to condemn us, but in order to break the power of sin. He wants to forgive us and purify us. His light overthrows the power of sin.
Jesus came to overthrow the power of death.
A last reason Christ was a revolutionary was because he sought to bring eternal life. Throughout his life he promised his followers the gift of eternal life. He told Nicodemus, in John 3:14-15 (NIV) "...the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." He told the woman at the well in John 4:13-14 (NIV), "…whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." To his Jewish antagonists he said in John 5:21 (NIV), "…just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." And in John 5:26 (NIV), "...for as the Father has life in himself, so he granted the Son to have life in himself."
To the hungry crowds he declared in John 6:35 and John 6:40 (NIV), "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." "For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
In John 11:25 (NIV)to Lazarus’s grieving family Jesus promised, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." To his disciples he promised in John 14:2-4 (NIV), "In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." And in John 14:6 (NIV) he says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To God in heaven he prayed in John 17:1-2 (NIV), "...Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him."
Jesus' resurrection would prove that he had power over death.
Ultimately, Jesus didn’t just come to overthrow the power of sin and darkness. He came to overthrow the power of death. He came to grant eternal life to all who believe. As proof of his ability to overthrow the power of darkness, sin, and death, Jesus offered his own bodily resurrection. He would be raised from the dead on third day. His resurrection would be vindication for his claims that he held the power over life and death.
On the first Easter Sunday, Jesus was raised from the dead and he received new life. Nothing like that in all of history leading up to that moment, or even from that moment, had ever happened in Jerusalem. Christ’s resurrection fueled a revolution that continues to gain momentum throughout our world today. His resurrection was a revolution to overthrow the power of darkness, to proclaim the name of God to the ends of the earth so that all men might know God.
A revolution to overthrow the power of sin. A revolution to eradicate the presence of sin in our lives. A revolution to bring forgiveness to all who believe. A revolution to purify all men from unrighteousness. A revolution to overthrow the power of death, to bring life and to restore hope. A revolution to affect the destinies of men and women everywhere. This morning the revolution continues.