SPEAKER_02: The scripture reading this morning is in John 18, verse 1 to 27.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus had spoken this word, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
SPEAKER_02: Now Judas who betrayed him also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
SPEAKER_02: So Judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
SPEAKER_02: Then Jesus, knowing all that will happen to him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek?
SPEAKER_02: They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to them, I am he.
SPEAKER_02: Judas who betrayed him was standing with them, and when Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.
SPEAKER_02: So he asked them again, Whom do you seek?
SPEAKER_02: And they say, Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus answered, I'll to I told you that I am he.
SPEAKER_02: So if you seek me, let this man go.
SPEAKER_02: This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken.
SPEAKER_02: Of those whom you gave me, I have lost no one.
SPEAKER_02: Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right ear.
SPEAKER_02: The servant's name was Malchus.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into the sheath.
SPEAKER_02: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?
SPEAKER_02: So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.
SPEAKER_02: First they led him to Annas, who for he was the father-in-law of Caiphas, who was the high priest that year.
SPEAKER_02: It was Caiphas who had advised uh advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for for the people.
SPEAKER_02: Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple, since that disciple was known to the high priest.
SPEAKER_02: He entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside of the door.
SPEAKER_02: So the other disciple who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in.
SPEAKER_02: The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are not one of his disciples, are you?
SPEAKER_02: He said, I am not.
SPEAKER_02: Now the servants and officers had made a chural charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves.
SPEAKER_02: Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
SPEAKER_02: The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world.
SPEAKER_02: I have always talked in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews came come together, I have said nothing in secret.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you ask me?
SPEAKER_02: As those who have heard me what I say to them, they know what I say.
SPEAKER_02: When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Is that how you answer the high priest?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus answered him, If what I said is grown, bear witness about the ground.
SPEAKER_02: If it was if what I say is right, why do you strike me?
SPEAKER_02: Annas then sent him bound to Caiphas, the high priest.
SPEAKER_02: Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself, so they say to him, You also are not one of his disciples, are you?
SPEAKER_02: He denied and said, I am not.
SPEAKER_02: One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose Peter, uh whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, Did I not see you in the garden with him?
SPEAKER_02: Peter again denied and at once a roosted crow.
SPEAKER_02: So it's God's word.
SPEAKER_01: We've done weeks and weeks and weeks of Jesus' teaching in uh what we call the upper room discourse, uh, John 13 through the end of John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: Lots of teaching about uh about the future, uh, about joy, about the gift of the Holy Spirit and what he does.
SPEAKER_01: But now, again, chapter 18 begins after he'd said these words, the talking's over, and now the great actions begin.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus uh leads his disciples again out of that upper room and out of the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Night has fallen, the darkest day in all of human history is about to dawn.
SPEAKER_01: And he journeys for one last time out of the city with the eleven, across the small stream called the Kidron Brook.
SPEAKER_01: Tiny little stream that started up in the temple mount that flowed down past the old city of Jerusalem, uh, marking out the city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, and he would cross over that stream.
SPEAKER_01: That stream, which flowed from the temple court at this time at Passover, was running red with the blood of the sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: Usually about a quarter of a million lambs and goats and bulls were slaughtered at Passover, and so this blood-red brook trickles down, and the Lamb of God steps over it as he walks up the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_01: The garden.
SPEAKER_01: A garden which the other gospel writers note is the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_01: John, in his account, simply notes that this place was known also to Judas.
SPEAKER_01: Did Jesus leave the city just to pray?
SPEAKER_01: Or did he leave because Judas knew where he was going?
SPEAKER_01: Was Jesus walking into a trap?
SPEAKER_01: Or was he setting one?
SPEAKER_01: The city at Passover would swell by about 200,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: This ancient city of Jerusalem is teeming.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus leaves and goes somewhere quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps he leaves because he doesn't want a public revolt at his as at his arrest.
SPEAKER_01: He sets a trap and he waits to spring it.
SPEAKER_01: Judas has conspired with both religious and political leaders, and now he comes with a mob, not just of Jewish temple guards, but uh we're told a uh a battalion, a detachment, a band, verse three, of soldiers.
SPEAKER_01: That band of Roman soldiers would have been about 200 men.
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to kind of picture in your mind's eye the type of crowd that's coming out to arrest Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All of humanity, Jew and Gentile, are coming out to subdue and to silence the word made flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Yet in the midst of all of the drama of these unfolding pages, there is one who is in utter and unwavering control over every beat, over every movement, and it is not Judas, it is not the authorities, it is certainly not the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: John tells us in verse 4, then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said, Whom do you seek?
SPEAKER_01: And so we come this morning not just to learn the the information about those events, but to consider their significance.
SPEAKER_01: The one who is in utter control of his destiny.
SPEAKER_01: Let us consider it under three headings.
SPEAKER_01: First, let's consider Jesus' great claim.
SPEAKER_01: There's a great claim here from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: Judas comes to the garden and the trap is sprung.
SPEAKER_01: He arrives just as he was meant to, at the appointed place, at the appointed time, and Jesus, stepping out of the shadows, asks, Whom do you seek?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: And they answer him, verse 5, Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: They're thinking about his uh his background, his earthly lineage, Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus responds in verse 5, Jesus said to them, I am he.
SPEAKER_01: Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with him.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said to him, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: How is it that when Jesus says, I am he, 200 Roman soldiers fall to the ground?
SPEAKER_01: Why does that happen?
SPEAKER_01: What's the significance?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, one of the things that you need to know is that the word he is inserted into the English translations in order to smooth out the reading.
SPEAKER_01: There's no he in the original.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus steps forward.
SPEAKER_01: Whom do you seek?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, and he steps forward and he says, I am.
SPEAKER_01: And they stagger and fall back.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I am.
SPEAKER_01: Ego Ami.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's great significance to these words, to I am.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to cast your mind back to the book of Exodus, to Exodus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 3 is the uh is the scene uh where Moses comes before God in the uh in the form of the burning bush.
SPEAKER_01: He's there in the uh in the wilderness of Midian, and he sees that there's a bush that's on fire and it's not being consumed, and so he he goes forward, and the Lord, God, speaks to him from the bush.
SPEAKER_01: And in the uh and in the course of their conversation, uh, God is telling Moses, uh, go to Pharaoh and say, Let my people, the people of Israel, let them go, because they were in slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses at one point uh in verse 14 says, Who should I say has sent me to them?
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Tell them I am sent you.
SPEAKER_01: That is God's name.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, I am, I am who I am, or I will be who I will be, the ever-living one.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him I am sent you.
SPEAKER_01: Or indeed, in this very gospel, there's a scene in uh in chapter eight where the Pharisees are again discussing Jesus' earthly uh lineage and uh and how great their pedigree is.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Well, our father is Abraham, we're descended from him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus looks at them and says, Before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_01: He is taking that divine name upon himself.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus steps forward and says, I am, he is making a great claim.
SPEAKER_01: He's making a staggering claim, no pun intended.
SPEAKER_01: He is claiming to be God.
SPEAKER_01: This you need to recognize this is different to every other founder of any world religion.
SPEAKER_01: Most founders of world religions, whether it's Muhammad or Buddha, uh they expressly, deliberately, explicitly do not claim to be God.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas Jesus has every confidence in taking that name upon himself.
SPEAKER_01: And John wants us also to be confident that this claim is a historical one, that we can be confident that this is something that actually happened.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we get little details all the way through this passage.
SPEAKER_01: One of the chief ones is the naming of the servant who had his ear cut off.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Malchus.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we learn his name?
SPEAKER_01: When we learn his name, because John wants us to be confident that what we are reading is eyewitness testimony.
SPEAKER_01: The idea being that if you were a first century reader, you could go to Jerusalem and find the guy still bearing the scars.
SPEAKER_01: Say, were you in the garden the night they arrested the one that they called the Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Is your name Malchus?
SPEAKER_01: And he would turn and he would say yes.
SPEAKER_01: There's a uh a great and scholarly work called Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_01: If you ever want to look it by a guy called Richard Balcom, uh B-A-U-C-K-H-A-M, Richard Balcom, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_01: And it makes the case very convincingly that what we have in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are eyewitness testimony to what is unfolding in these events.
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: Why include these details?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you're making such extraordinary claims, John wants you to be confident that these claims are rooted in history, that they are verifiable.
SPEAKER_01: But each one of us here this morning must reckon with the claims of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Is he the great I am, the eternal son of the Father, or is he not?
SPEAKER_01: And if he is, what implications does that have for your life?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is making an extraordinary claim.
SPEAKER_01: Point two.
SPEAKER_01: John not only shows us an extraordinary claim, but shows us our great need.
SPEAKER_01: Second, our great need.
SPEAKER_01: You might be sitting there and say something like, Well, I could go around uh saying that I'm God doesn't make it true.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is quite right.
SPEAKER_01: But then you must consider the response of the people here in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus steps forward, who you looking for?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus of Nazareth, I am.
SPEAKER_01: And their response, all right, great, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: They stagger and they fall back to the grind.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why do they fall back?
SPEAKER_01: Why do they fall to the ground when Jesus says, I am, when he reveals that divine name to them?
SPEAKER_01: Well, one of the things that you need to see is that all the way through the Bible, this is how people respond when they come face to face with God.
SPEAKER_01: People these days like to say, Oh, you know, when I uh when I became a Christian, I felt just a real sense of uh real sense of peace.
SPEAKER_01: And that is wonderful and glorious and good.
SPEAKER_01: But actually, the the response to many people, when they come face to face with the God of the Bible, with the God of the universe, they do not feel a sense of peace.
SPEAKER_01: They feel a sense of terror and they fall down.
SPEAKER_01: Moses again before the bore before the burning bush.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when when he encounters God, he falls down, he hides his face.
SPEAKER_01: That is, he he goes prostrate on the ground because he cannot bear to be in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: When the temple uh in Jerusalem was was first consecrated by King Solomon, we're told there that the glory of God, that is, the weightiness of his presence, fell upon the temple, and that the priests in the temple could not stand to minister the sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God caused them to fall again on their faces.
SPEAKER_01: Or perhaps more famously, Isaiah's vision of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know it, it's at the start of Isaiah chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and around him were six seraphim, each of them having six wings, and with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew, and they cried, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: At the sound of their voices, the posts of the temple shook.
SPEAKER_01: And I cried aloud, Woe is me, for I am undone, for I live among a people of unclean lips.
SPEAKER_01: Because my eyes have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Or Peter, we're told in Luke's gospel, has a very odd reaction to Jesus right at the start of Jesus' earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_01: You might remember the story from Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but there's it's the large catch of fish.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the disciples have been fishing all night and they haven't caught a thing.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes along and says, How's it going?
SPEAKER_01: Any fish?
SPEAKER_01: No, no fish.
SPEAKER_01: So why don't you let down for why don't you let down for another catch?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Well, we've been fishing all night, but at your word, we'll lay down, we'll let down for another catch.
SPEAKER_01: And they put down their nets, and in an instant, their nets are full to burst.
SPEAKER_01: The boats are nearly sinking under the weight of this great catch of fish.
SPEAKER_01: And do you remember what Peter says?
SPEAKER_01: Peter doesn't say, huh, off the market we go.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: That's dinner tonight sorted.
SPEAKER_01: We get to sell some fish.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Great to have you around.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, see you next week.
SPEAKER_01: Same time again.
SPEAKER_01: No, he doesn't say anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: What does Peter say?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Depart from me, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For I am a sinful man.
SPEAKER_01: Falls down before him and begs Jesus to leave.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: When people come face to face with God, they cannot help but fall down.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: When you come face to face with the most intelligent person that you have ever met, do you feel smart or do you feel stupid?
SPEAKER_01: When you meet the most beautiful person that you have ever met, do you feel pretty or do you feel ugly?
SPEAKER_01: Imagine then confronting absolute moral purity, stunning holiness, absolute glory.
SPEAKER_01: You don't feel pride, you feel sinful and you fall to the grind.
SPEAKER_01: It is as though at this point, it is as though Jesus is giving one last flex.
SPEAKER_01: It is as though he opens up one tiny chink of light of who he truly is for one last time and says, I am and this mob at those two glorious words in that moment all of their swords and all of their clubs and all of their lanterns become laughably useless and they fall back.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because none of us can stand in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, Peter's pitiful attempts, and we'll talk a lot about Peter in just a moment, but Peter's pitiful attempts at valor here point us to the fact that we both cannot stand before God, and nor can we save ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: He strikes this uh this blow.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it is it is possible actually that uh that the mob's still on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: So Malchus is still kind of on the on the grind, and so Peter's kind of striking down like this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so you know, it's so courageous.
SPEAKER_01: The guy's on his back, and he's like, okay, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: And he lands this clumsy blow.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's blow is as clumsy as his understanding of what is going on.
SPEAKER_01: He affects little.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is.
SPEAKER_01: He affects little, if anything.
SPEAKER_01: And as we'll see later, he actually, for himself, I think, makes matters worse.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Peter didn't need greater strength nor greater resolve or to fight with greater courage.
SPEAKER_01: No, he needed what we need.
SPEAKER_01: He needed the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's Jesus here in this passage who negotiates the freedom of his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_01: Verses 8 and 9?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them, I told you that I am he.
SPEAKER_01: So if you seek me, let these men go.
SPEAKER_01: This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken just a couple of chapters earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Of those whom you have given me, I have lost not one.
SPEAKER_01: It is Jesus who negotiates the release of those whom he loves.
SPEAKER_01: And in doing so in the garden, he shows us in miniature what he is about to do by his death on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This passage shows us not just the great claim of Jesus to be eternal God, the beloved Son of the Father, but shows us our great need.
SPEAKER_01: That on our own we cannot stand in his holy presence, and we cannot save ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And so thirdly, we come then to his great love, Jesus' great claim, our great need, and his great love.
SPEAKER_01: If our problem is that we cannot stand before a holy God, and that we cannot in our own strength rescue ourselves, then we need help.
SPEAKER_01: And our help comes from the great love that Jesus has for us.
SPEAKER_01: It is his love that constrains his power in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the most amazing thing that happens in the garden is not that Jesus is able to blow down 200 men with a word.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the most amazing thing.
SPEAKER_01: The most amazing thing that happens in the garden is that after he has laid them on their backsides, he willingly goes with them.
SPEAKER_01: It is as though we wrap the God of life in tissue paper handcuffs, and he in his great love deigns to go with us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most amazing thing about what happens in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: It's that after all of that, he goes willingly to his arrest and to his trial.
SPEAKER_01: It is his love that compels him forward.
SPEAKER_01: It is his love that negotiates the release of his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: It is his love that drives him on to take that cup.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reference there in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said to Peter, put away, put your sword into its sheath.
SPEAKER_01: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?
SPEAKER_01: That reference to the cup is a it's an Old Testament image of the cup of the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah talks about it.
SPEAKER_01: He says that the wrath of God has been poured into this cup, and it would make the nation stagger.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, I'm about to drink that cup of the wrath of the judgment of God, to drain it to its dregs for you who cannot stand in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: In love, he will go on in just a moment to deny nothing, while Peter denies everything.
SPEAKER_01: And so the scene shifts.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is arrested.
SPEAKER_01: He is brought to Annas, the high priest, and is led.
SPEAKER_01: If you can begin to picture, so begin to construct in your mind's eye a uh a large-ish colonnaded courtyard.
SPEAKER_01: So colonnades are the are these kind of uh kind of Roman posts, right?
SPEAKER_01: So it's a courtyard that has these colonnades around it, this private courtyard in the high priest's house.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is led in there.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're told that there is another disciple.
SPEAKER_01: The reference to another disciple is probably John.
SPEAKER_01: John tends to uh in his gospel talk about himself in the third person, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, here he's the he's another disciple, and he has enough family connections in order to grant Peter access to the courtyard.
SPEAKER_01: And so he goes in for a moment, he comes out, says, He's with me, and Peter begins to make his way into the courtyard.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in the courtyard, uh, some of those, some of the 200 that had arrested Jesus over in one corner.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine we're over in one corner here, and they've lit a fire.
SPEAKER_01: You think of uh homeless people under uh uh under an overpass, they might have said fire to an oil drum.
SPEAKER_01: It's that sort of idea.
SPEAKER_01: They're crowded round, and there's a fire here, and Jesus is over on the other side of the courtyard being questioned by the high priest.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's line of sight and line of sound.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter walks into the courtyard, and as he's walking in, he's stopped at the door just briefly, just for a moment, and he's questioned.
SPEAKER_01: Not by some uh some armored soldier with weapon drawn, not by one of the two hundred of the violent battalion, but by a servant girl.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: If I could be controversial for a second, let's not judge Peter too harshly here.
SPEAKER_01: It's a stressful night for the guy.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He's in unfamiliar surroundings.
SPEAKER_01: Walking into the home, to the courtyard of the high priest, that's not something that his family had connections to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's going into an unfamiliar place with people who are armed to the teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Remember as well that he's actually at this point the only criminal there.
SPEAKER_01: Because, remember, told you this would be significant, he's just assaulted a temple guard.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one who's actually done something wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know what else?
SPEAKER_01: The servant girl's question presumes a no answer.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the way it's constructed?
SPEAKER_01: Are you not also?
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy for Peter, as he's stressed, wanting to get through the door, wanting to get past people, trying to keep his head down.
SPEAKER_01: Are you not also well?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy.
SPEAKER_01: But isn't that it all isn't that always the way that it is with sin?
SPEAKER_01: That once you do it once, it'll become even easier to do it again.
SPEAKER_01: It was so easy.
SPEAKER_01: It was just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: But he'd open the door.
SPEAKER_01: They walk into the courtyard, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: They walk into the courtyard.
SPEAKER_01: We're told that the night is cold, and goodness me, so is the atmosphere.
SPEAKER_01: There's a fire in the corner over here.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, who swore eternal allegiance to his Lord, who swore that he would lay down his life for him, goes and stands where?
SPEAKER_01: Goes and stands alongside those who were arresting his Lord, and warms himself by the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Think of it in your mind's eye.
SPEAKER_01: We've come from Peter, and we're moving through the crowd, and we're hearing just for a moment the trial that Jesus is undergoing.
SPEAKER_01: And what do we see there?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus stands up to all of their accusations.
SPEAKER_01: He stands up in the face of their interrogation, he denies nothing, and he outmaneuvers them by his wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that Jesus is winning here because what do they do?
SPEAKER_01: They strike him.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't violence always the last resort of desperate men?
SPEAKER_01: The Son of God is on trial, and he is keeping his cool.
SPEAKER_01: He is winning.
SPEAKER_01: And they hate him for it.
SPEAKER_01: But there's another trial that's about to ramp up.
SPEAKER_01: There's another man on trial, and his questioning is about to begin again.
SPEAKER_01: And so the scene shifts.
SPEAKER_01: John again repeats in verse 25 that Simon Peter was what?
SPEAKER_01: He was standing warming himself by the fire.
SPEAKER_01: That as Jesus faces an icy interrogation by the high priest, Peter, by contrast, is warming himself.
SPEAKER_01: More and more distance is growing between them.
SPEAKER_01: He has sided by his posture with those who have arrested his Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And those gathered around him ask him again.
SPEAKER_01: Again, he is given another opportunity to take a stand for the Lord that he said he loved, and yet he denies a second time.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, we're told that a relative of the man he'd assaulted come forward.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine Peter's blood pressure at that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine his heart beginning to thump.
SPEAKER_01: He can hear it pulsing in his ears as the question comes again.
SPEAKER_01: And he can't see Jesus anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He can only see his own safety.
SPEAKER_01: He can only see his accusers.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes again.
SPEAKER_01: Did I not see you in the garden?
SPEAKER_01: And here it is, do or die, stand or fall.
SPEAKER_01: And for the third and final time, he spits out his denials.
SPEAKER_01: And at once the rooster crowed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was right.
SPEAKER_01: It all happened just as he had said.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus tell him before time that this would happen to shame him?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: I think in that moment Peter realized, Peter realized three things.
SPEAKER_01: That he had less strength and resolve than he would have hoped.
SPEAKER_01: But second, that nothing was spiraling out of control of the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: And that though Peter might waver, Jesus never would.
SPEAKER_01: Luke, in his gospel account, tells us that when Peter denied for the third time, their eyes locked and they looked at one another.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus and his Lord, it is as though the the crowd of people parted like the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_01: Just imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter for the third time said, I am not.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing to do with this man.
SPEAKER_01: And the rooster crows.
SPEAKER_01: And their eyes mate.
SPEAKER_01: What did that look say?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: What was communicated between those eyes as they locked for that moment?
SPEAKER_01: Were they words of condemnation?
SPEAKER_01: See, I told you so, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Or a look of love and grace.
SPEAKER_01: John Newton wrote a hymn.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: John Newton wrote a hymn called In Evil Long I Took Delight.
SPEAKER_01: And he talks about the look of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read it for you.
SPEAKER_01: In evil long I took delight, on awed, unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck my sight and stopped my wild career.
SPEAKER_01: I saw one hanging on a tree, in agony and blood, who fixed his languid eyes on me as near the cross I stood.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, never to my latest breath can I forget that look.
SPEAKER_01: It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke.
SPEAKER_01: My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair.
SPEAKER_01: I saw my sins, his blood and spit, and helped to nail him there.
SPEAKER_01: Alas, I knew not what I did, but now my tears are vain, where shall my trembling soul be hid, for I the Lord have slain.
SPEAKER_01: A second look he gave which said I freely all forgive.
SPEAKER_01: This blood is for thy ransom paid, I die so thou mightst live.
SPEAKER_01: Thus while his death my sin displays in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: It seals my pardon too.
SPEAKER_00: It was cold that night in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus' love for Peter burned still.
SPEAKER_00: It's night time.
SPEAKER_00: There's betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: There's violence.
SPEAKER_01: There's arrest and accusation and denial.
SPEAKER_01: The darkest of days when men would commit the darkest of deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, through it all there is one shaft of light piercing that dark night, and it rises from one of the most unlikely places.
SPEAKER_01: A man who, when he spoke, spoke truer than he knew.
SPEAKER_01: John recounts verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Have a look at it with me.
SPEAKER_01: It was Caiaphas who had said, who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient, that it would be better that one man should die for the people.
SPEAKER_01: How dreadfully right Caiaphas was.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot stand before God because of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot save ourselves because of our pitiful misdirected efforts.
SPEAKER_01: We have no strength to keep faith on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We need another.
SPEAKER_00: One who stands in our place, who would take our sin and give us strength to stand.
SPEAKER_00: We hear all that need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The mighty King who goes willingly with his accusers, the good shepherd who protects his sheep in the garden and who will rescue them eternally.
SPEAKER_00: The faithful one who did not deny himself.
SPEAKER_00: The Lamb of God who was sacrificed that we might be set free.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him this morning, perhaps for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Receive his grace and know his freedom and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Come, Christian, to the table of the Lord where we eat broken bread and wine poured out in remembrance of these events and renew as a follower of the Lord Jesus your vow to follow him in the strength that he supplies until your day's end.