John 18:1 After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. 2 Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. 3 The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. 4 Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. 5 “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) 6 As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! 7 Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”8 “I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” 9 He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”
Jesus and His disciples go to a grove of olive trees they all knew about, especially Judas, who was about to betray Him. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to go and arrest one man, Jesus. The group of soldiers seems a little overwhelming, but what happened next shows the power of God in Jesus as He identified Himself and His very breath knocked them to the ground. That is real power!! I have seen different preachers do "the breath thing" and try to blow people over, but here is the "real" power in the breath of the Son of God and it overwhelmed this big force of men coming for Jesus.
All of what happened began to come together as recorded by Matthew in Matthew 26:3 At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest, 4 plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the Passover celebration,” they agreed, “or the people may riot.” Judas was the one they singled out to betray Jesus and the deal is found in the following scripture in Matthew 26:14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. Evil seeks to devour and destroy, but the real power is found in God and the very words Jesus said had the weight of God's power in them. All Jesus said was "I AM HE" and the when He breathed those words all the soldiers were knocked down. Remember, in Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,? Here was a vivid example of the power of the Name of Jesus.
I always cringe when someone yells "Jesus" in disgust. This is the powerful name of the Savior of the world. We should never dishonor it by using it in a dishonoring way. All Jesus did when asked if He was Jesus the Nazarene was say I Am He and the reality that He is the Son of God showed itself. Mere men will try to control and manipulate with strength through human means, but all of those efforts mean "nothing" in comparison to the power of God. Names are important and the story below illustrates how important it is to get the name right.
When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.
That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.
"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" they offered. And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much odder than Heather's or Sun Ray's.
At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?"
He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony."
No matter how crazy names get, there is one name that has power and that name is Jesus.
Today's Message,
David Warren
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