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John 18:1-27 Who Are You?
John chapter 18, the reading from verses 1 to 27, hear the word of the Lord. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met him there with his disciples. 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.
Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
When Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. And so we asked them again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go.
This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. Of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.
The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.
First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest. But Peter stood outside at the door.
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. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?
He said, I am not. Now the servants and the officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.
I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. 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?
Jesus answered him, if what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. If what I said is right, why do you strike me? And it's then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself.
So they said to him, you also are not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, did I not see you in the garden with him?
Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, what's your ideal personality type? You have one? Ever think about it? Is it the life of the party type?
Effusive, just outgoing, expressive, emotional, maybe loud with a lot of laughter, kind of gushing, the kind of guy that goes maybe to another guy, you know, I love you, man, maybe with a beer bottle in one hand, that kind of type.
Is that the ideal personality? Different cultures have different ideal personalities. Perhaps one of the American ideals is being effusive, like that. Americans are known for being kind of like that, talkative, loud, effusive.
In Singapore, they had some commercials on TV from Visa, believe it or not. When I first arrived in Singapore, someone there first commented to me that I didn't seem like an American. He thought I seemed more British.
I think he meant that as a compliment. I'll take it as one. The Chinese have a different kind of personality, ideal personality. In other words, people themselves are different, obviously, but what they look up to is this is what you should be like.
Some of the same behavior that Americans would find acceptable, even admirable, Chinese would often find is kind of immature, juvenile, maybe even barbaric, repulsive, a sign of poor upbringing, you know, quiet down, be respectful, lose weight, pay your debts.
It used to be said way back even in our culture, still waters run deep. People respected the strong, silent type. This is the way it used to be. George Washington was like that. I wonder if he could even win an election today, if he were around today.
I believe the movies and television are largely responsible for changing that. You know, they exalt the flashy personality, the impetuous person who wears all his feelings on his sleeve, expresses himself all the time, fast talking, exuberant, the one who makes loud, bold declarations.
The effusive type just gushes out personality so that you can see it on the screen. I think that's what they want for TV or movies. And they pick people like that for game shows, you know, people who will scream and react loudly, run around and collapse on the floor if they win something or if they lose.
The people who put their shows together love that kind of thing, so they put that out there. Most of us, I think, if we won a new car, we'd probably go, oh, that's nice. I think I like that car. But that's not the kind they pick for the shows.
They want somebody to scream and fall on the floor and run around in circles. The media exalts what glitters, not what's gold. Now, some observers have noticed that we are now a people weak on convictions and strong on feelings, weak on what's strong and strong on what's weak, strong on self-pity, strong on being hurt, strong on bravado, on emotional words, impetuous, impulsive, rash, but weak on a disciplined tongue, a disciplined heart, weak on self-sacrifice and loyalty, weak on going the long haul.
People will pledge that they're willing to endure anything, make any sacrifice, bear any burden, protect any friend, fight any foe when they've just experienced a horrible terrorist attack, but when the shock has worn off and the sacrifices finally start to bite, well, then maybe not.
That's life in a society that exalts the effusive. Perhaps another American ideal personality is the assertive, the personality who commands respect. When he or she enters a room, everyone notices. He gets his way, not to be slighted.
We respect the person who asserts his rights, the kind who is not walked all over, you know, the alpha male, even if the alpha female, who doesn't take any disrespect for anybody, the leader of the pack.
When I ran track, we had a couple of guys who I had always to be in front, and so I decided to show them that they don't belong up front by outrunning them. If you're going to be assertive, you better be able to back it up.
In our day, the effusive and the assertive are the ideals, and we see those personality types in this passage we just read conflicting with another type, not at all an ideal, not to us anyway, the submissive.
So here we see in the rest of Jesus, first the submissive, then the effusive, and finally the assertive. First is submissive. Who would want to be submissive? I mean, the only people who are submissive are those who have no choice but to be submissive, we think.
They're overpowered, they're vulnerable, they don't have any rights, they can't demand my money back. They can't, so they've got to beg. It's surely a sign of weakness, but here the submissive one is God in human flesh, the Word who was in the beginning, who had just been talking before in his prayer of having glory.
Here he is submissive. He's the Lord, but he's the submissive Lord. The Lord Jesus here doesn't neatly fit into any of our ideal personalities. He does not rashly shoot off his mouth. He isn't engaged in what in sports today is called, you know, trash talking, puffing himself up, talking others down.
He says little of this passage, really very little at all. He said a lot from chapters 13 to 16. In fact, there's almost all his teachings from chapter 13 to 16, preparing his people. He says a lot in the prayer to the Father in chapter 17, but by chapter 18 in Face of the World, he says very little.
They go to the garden. Judas in verse 2 meets Jesus there with a band of soldiers with torches and lanterns and weapons. They're armed in order to be assertive, and Jesus has the band of armed men twice in verses 4 and 7.
Whom do you seek? He says, I am. He tells Peter to put away his sword and that I will drink the cup the Father has given. He later challenges the high priest to show him if he said anything wrong. He said, everyone knows what I've been saying.
That's the people. He challenged the officer who hit him to explain why, and that's all. Mostly he's quiet. He's restrained, even poised, regal, majestic. Well, like the assertive, he is in control. Verse 4 says that he knew everything that was going to transpire.
He was not caught off guard by this. He knew exactly what was going to unfold. He knew what Peter was going to do when under pressure. He already told him beforehand. For the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
He knew what the soldiers would do to him. He knew everything that was going to happen to him, and yet he doesn't cringe. He doesn't flinch. Jesus never wavered from his commitment to be submissive to the will of the Father.
He has, even in the face of torture and death, poise, majesty. The secret to his poise and majesty, he was perfectly submitting. He goes into a garden like the first Adam, but Jesus doesn't grasp, you know, for his will to be done like the first Adam did.
He wasn't asserting his will. He saw the will of the Father, of this cup of suffering and death. He saw it handed to him, and he accepted it. He submissively drank it. So knowing everything, he led his disciples to their usual place, the garden of Gethsemane.
In verse 2, it says that he often went there. So imagine how easy it could have been for him to avoid the arrest and crucifixion. If he had chosen to avoid it, it would have been as easy as just finding a new place to pray.
That's all. I mean, he knows he's going to be ambushed there, going to be captured there. Just go somewhere else. Judas and the authorities thought that they were placing a trap for the Lord Jesus, but Jesus knew the trap was there.
He knew all about it, and he submissively walked right into it because it was the cup that the Father was serving him. The trap had sprung. Judas leads the soldiers and the temple guards right to where the Lord Jesus was waiting, and when the Lord sees them, notice he steps forward, leaving his disciples behind.
You know, all the Gospels have their own kind of contribution they want to add. I mean, they're all true, and they all have their own particular contribution. If you just read the Gospels, you would think, well, Jesus was kind of identified by Judas with that kiss, that famous kiss.
But here in John, John wants to make sure we understand Jesus knew what was happening. He stepped forward. He put himself forward. He's willingly submitted to this. So here in John, he sees the band of soldiers with Judas, and he asks them, he steps forward out from the rest of the disciples, and he asks the band, whom do you seek?
And they tell him, Jesus the Nazarene. And he awes them then with one two-word answer, I am, in verses five and six. Now literally in Greek it only says I am, and on one level this is just a simple answer to their question.
You know, whom do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth? Well, I am he. I'm that one. It's just a way of saying that's me. But in light of the Lord's other words in John chapter eight, verse 58, where he tells the people before Abraham was, I am, playing on the meaning of the word Yahweh, the Lord who is the I am, the I am.
Right at the moment of his betrayal and arrest, he is revealing who he is, that he is the I am, the Lord God Almighty in human flesh, the one who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. I am who I am, and told Moses to tell the people I am has set him.
His words and something of his presence here reveal that he is the true God. And the soldiers come to arrest him. They get a glimpse, a fleeting glimpse of the majesty of Jesus. They feel the awe being in his presence.
And so it says they fell backward, instinctively fall back. First, before he allows himself to be taken prisoner, he stipulates that they must let the disciples go in verse eight. Let these men go. And you notice it's not request.
It's not please if you would. No, no, it's I'm telling you, you're going to let them go. He's laying down terms. And it doesn't look like from a human perspective, from our kind of perspective, it doesn't look like he's in a very good negotiating position.
And to be telling, here he is, one man with less than a dozen disciples, and he's going to be laying down terms to heavily armed temple guards backed up by a band of Roman soldiers? How's that work? But of course, we know that he is indeed in complete control of the situation.
As he says in the other gospels, he could have called out legions of angels to fight for him if he wanted, but instead he merely seeks to protect his followers, the disciples, the apostles he has there.
And he told them already in chapter six, verse 39, that he would lose none of those whom the father has given him. He fulfilled his own word. He prayed in the prayer just like we saw last week. Father, I've lost none of those you've given me.
And here it says he fulfilled that word. Just like earlier, Jesus talks about how the scripture was fulfilled. This had to happen so that scripture was fulfilled. Here, this had to happen so that Jesus' own words just at the previous prayer was fulfilled.
He will protect his sheep even while laying down his own life. Once his followers' safety is assured, he doesn't seek his own. He submits. The Lord Jesus meets them in the garden knowing what they were planning to do.
He steps forward, identifies himself, intervening so that his people would not be hurt, even though all but one of them flee that night, even though nearly all of them wouldn't care enough about him to stay loyal.
He cares enough about them to save them, to sacrifice himself for them. He's strong on the strong virtues. He awes the soldiers with just a glimpse of who he is, I am, and they fall back in fear. In verse 6, he could have chased them all the way to hell at that moment.
But instead, he returns to being God, veiled in human flesh, submissive even to their rough treatment. Despite being overwhelmed with his presence, they immediately return to their mission to arrest him.
Notice Judas is with them. In verse 5, John makes a special point to say that in verse 5. Notice that Judas was with them. He's among the forces of darkness. Despite living closely with Jesus for years now, having heard him firsthand, having been chosen by Jesus to be an apostle, Judas' heart has not been turned to the Lord.
Judas chose to assert himself instead. So the forces of darkness, the Roman authorities, the Romans, you know, the pinnacle of human civilization and power, the Jewish authorities, it's the inheritors of God's Word and the law and the prophets, joined by an apostate disciple, all of them together are arrayed against Christ, showing the depth of human depravity.
Civilization, religion, even human friendship turn against the Lord. Even after glimpsing his glory, they are undeterred. Nothing but the grace of God can turn the fallen human heart from evil. Not the finest civilization, not the greatest religion, not the best friendship, not even a glimpse of God's glory.
We are so naturally inclined to assert ourselves, not submit ourselves. Here Peter thinks the Lord needs him. He takes out a sword, swings it, takes off the ear of a servant. He's rash and impulsive, full of a passionate desire to do something, anything for the Lord he loves.
So he lunges out with what he thinks is best. Sin is defined as whatever is done without faith. Whatever lacks faith is sin. And this is sin because Peter does not have faith in the Lord Jesus here. He fails to believe that the Lord really is the Lord, even over this situation.
He does not see that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him, that this was the cup the Father had prepared for him, and now he was submissively drinking it. He was strong on the weak virtues, impetuous, impulsive, clumsy zeal, but weak on the strong virtues, a steadfast trust, a submissive acceptance of the will of God.
That's Peter. The Lord Jesus declares, tells Peter, put your sword into its sheath, put it away. Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? In verse 11, Jesus is telling Peter that his attempts to protect him, besides being totally unnecessary, are not wanted.
He is voluntarily, Jesus is voluntarily submitting himself. He is giving himself over to the Jewish and Roman authorities, not because he believes in total surrender to the worst injustices. That's not what this is a story about.
You just, whatever anyone unjust wants to do to you, take advantage of you, you just submit to it. No, Jesus doesn't do that. This is not a story about timidly knuckling under to whatever injustice comes our way.
Rather, the Lord Jesus surrenders to this because even though on a human level it is indeed a great injustice, on a much deeper level, it ultimately comes from God himself. This is the cup that God has prepared for him.
The Father was the one who ultimately willed that this would happen. The Father is the one who poured out this cup of suffering and gave it to the Son. Peter didn't understand this. He's impetuous, he's hot-headed, he acted on whatever impulse swept him along.
He didn't understand that Jesus was not just a martyr, but a voluntary sacrifice that he was submitting. He was obedient to the Father's will. But who would willingly be submissive? He'll proclaim, Peter will, I will lay down my life for you.
He'll assert himself, he'll fight for Jesus with a sword. That he and we understand. But to submit willingly to that cup, that we don't understand. So there's the submissive Lord and then the effusive Peter.
Peter was the rash man, loudly expressed himself. He'd probably be picked for a game show. Chapter 13, verse 37, Peter shot off his mouth, I will lay down my life for you. I'm sure he said it with exuberance and he believed every word of it.
He had a surge of emotion, I will lay down my life for you. It sounded great and it made him feel good to say it. In our day there are people who think that that's what their faith is all about. It's about emotional displays of passion for Jesus and for God.
Come to church, you'd be effusive, and then they go home and it's a mess. The house is a mess and they lose their temper and they go to work and they're tempted to an indulgent affair. And the steady disciplines of prayer and Bible study and church attendance fade away.
They once dreamed of achieving great things for God, laying down their life for him. And now they can't even be bothered to open their Bibles or spend two hours a week in church for worship. Peter shot off his mouth because he was strong in the weak virtues and weak in the strong virtues.
He was strong in exuberance and emotional displays, like a game show contestant. He was weak in loyalty and submission. And this he proves in the next few paragraphs. We might have thought that Peter was very brave, willing to fight off scores of heavily armed soldiers single-handedly.
We might even think he's a model of self-sacrifice and courage. Up to now, if not for what happens next, we haven't heard the rest of the story. Within just about an hour, Peter goes from being willing to try to single-handedly repel a band of Roman and Jewish soldiers in order to save Jesus.
He goes from that to denying that he even knows Jesus. That's often what happens to the effusive, the emotional. One moment, throwing themselves into battle against platoons of soldiers. And next, afraid of a servant girl keeping the door.
The first one to get him to deny Christ, in verse 17, was a lowly, weak servant girl who said she was keeping the door. Well, they put her probably in some latch or something, and she lets people in. Doesn't say exactly how old she is.
Figures she's like 10, 12. This is a little girl. And she says something unsure. Notice the way it's put. You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? Hardly someone intimidating. He said, I am not.
He's weak on the strong virtues. So he quickly caves in when the adrenaline isn't flowing anymore, when he's had a little time to take a look at the cold reality of what it means to pick up his cross and follow Jesus while warming himself by a charcoal fire with the soldiers and the servants.
That's what happens often to the effusive. Third, there's the assertive. We see the submissive Lord, the effusive Peter, and the assertive religious. The religious leaders here are assertive. To the effusive, now, like Peter, when the heat of this exuberance, when it's cooled off, the assertive are intimidating.
They command respect. They have what so many people want. They have power. They have position, the ability to assert their will. They have the platoons of armed soldiers at their command. So he wilts near them.
But the submissive Lord calmly and majestically endures it all. Like the king that he is, he refuses, in verses 19 to 21, to humor their questions about his teaching. They're trying to interrogate him about his teaching.
And he says, I've spoken openly to the world. You know what I taught. What are you asking me now? If they seriously wanted to know the truth about his teaching, they could ask those who have heard him or listened to him themselves, as he taught in the temple.
But they didn't. They approached him, the assertive did, as if they were his judges, as if they had the right to condemn him. It never occurred to them that they should approach him as someone to listen to, to heed, to submit to.
They were, after all, the assertive. And as assertive people, that's the way they have always treated the Word of God. They treated it as something that they could bend as they wanted, to use as a tool to get what they wanted, to make it into a weapon to hurt whoever they wanted.
And so when the Word of God incarnate presents himself to them, they did to him whatever they wanted. We have within our culture a form of religion, even right here, a form of religion that is all about being assertive, imposing one's way onto others with all the trappings of godliness, but none of the real substance of it, the assertiveness of conviction, but none of the submissiveness of the Spirit.
They will assert with the greatest authority that God has said something. It's because they've decided. They think he should have said it. Maybe, like, called him to be a pastor. Then he really hasn't said.
And we know that he hasn't said it because some cases, even around here, well, they're women, and the Word of God speaks to that contrary to their will. And their religious assertiveness, they will insist that they are so assertive because the Word of God is fire in their bones.
But many of the religiously assertive people in this area for generations peacefully lived with the sin of racism, attending churches where black people were turned away at the door. Where was their assertiveness then?
They're so bold with the Word of God. Why weren't they bold to oppose that? Maybe it was never really for the Lord at all, just for themselves. The assertive misunderstand fundamentally what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
It means submissively drinking the cup the Father prepares. Here, that cup includes a punch in the mouth. One of the guards is an officer, hits Jesus in verse 22. The assertive assume that they can do that.
He's asserting himself with his fist. And Jesus calls into account, boldly, unintimidated by being hit by his apparent vulnerability, not afraid to be hit again. He challenges him. If what I said was wrong, bear witness to the wrong.
Show me. Don't just assert your power. If what I said was right, then why do you strike me? Your might doesn't give you the right to assert yourself. Throughout this, he acts and speaks without fear or without a kind of false bravado.
You can't intimidate me kind of front. He acts and speaks throughout it as if he were in control, as if he knew all of it was going to happen. And he purposely set off this chain of events. He acts as if he were the Lord, the submissive Lord, but still the Lord.
So we have the submissive, the assertive. Now back to the effusive, the wilting Peter, starting at verse 25. He's hung around a fire, trying to keep warm. It's about this time of year, so cold snaps come through just like last night here.
Having already been cowed by a little servant girl, now some of the others around the fire ask him, you also are not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it effusively, adamantly. I am not. Notice Jesus says twice, I am.
Peter says three times, I am not. Then in verse 26, a high priest servant who had gone to the garden with a relative, the one whose ear Peter had cut off, who had been there for that, asked, didn't I, wait, didn't you look familiar?
Didn't I see you in the garden with him? Peter, you'd think he'd be on the alert by now. He'd be going, whoa, I've denied him twice. Jesus said I would deny him three times. I better be careful. He was told that he would deny Jesus.
He's already done it twice. You'd think he would pull back, but he's so full of himself. So he effuses another denial. I am not. And the rooster crowed, and Peter, so effusive, so expressive, so emotional, so emphatic, I will lay down my life for you.
He's exposed for who he really is. You would think that if the Bible were mainly about encouraging us to unlock our potential, to be all that we can be, to motivate us to think more highly of ourselves, to express ourselves or assert ourselves, if that's what the Bible was about, then it would make up some story about how Peter bravely gave the good confession.
Peter would be a good model for us to follow. Not kind of a depressing, like, man, if he did that, maybe I would be worse. It would make up some story about how he boldly exclaimed to everyone that, you know, Peter would say, I'm not, yes, not only am I one of his disciples, in fact, I'm in the inner circle.
I'm the one Jesus said he's going to build his church on. He named me Peter, by the way. That's who I am. You better believe it, I'm one of his disciples. And then he would boldly tell about everything Jesus did and taught.
He fed the 5 ,000. He walked on the water. He raised people from the dead. And then he would challenge them right then and there. Kneel down. You should be one of his followers too. Commit your lives to Jesus too.
That's probably what we'd expect if this were just a motivational book and not an accurate description of what people are really like. Impulsive, sometimes exuberant, and then quickly their courage evaporates.
They're weak on the strong virtues. So, are you effusive or assertive or submissive? At worst, we might even be like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, using religion, church, so forth, even the name of God, to get what we want.
We can name it. We can claim it. We can have what we want if you have the faith. If you don't have what you want, it's because you don't have the faith. It's all about you asserting your faith. And you do that by saying the right confession and, of course, giving some money to the guy who's telling you that on TV.
Deceived and beneath the religious disguise and malicious. We could be like that. Oh, not me, we assume. But let us not be so arrogant as to think that our years of religion must be, simply must be, better than their years of religion.
Of course, we can think that, well, they were trapped in all those man-made traditions. Those traditions blinded them and turned them against Christ. But do we have traditions that have blinded us, that we have not submitted to the Word of God?
Do we really come into worship with a passion that everything be done God's way? Are we trying to bend the church, bend our religion, our faith, to serve ourselves? We assert ourselves, our will over it.
If we've not meekly bowed the knee to Christ, if we've not confessed that we are sinners, if we've not been through that swamp of conviction and been aware of the muck and the mire of our own sinfulness, and then been be willing to drink the cup the Father gives to us, the cup of repentance, the cup of agonizing over our sins, the cup of suffering with Christ.
If you haven't been there, then examine yourself to see whether your religion is like that of the Pharisees. Just an assertion of yourself. We can be like Peter, effusive, expressing our faith so passionately, and then when the pressure's on, we wilt away.
Or we can be like the Pharisees or the Sadducees or Judas, assertive. But by ourselves, that is left to ourselves, we can't be like the Lord Jesus here. He is not here in this story as a model, kind of a type, that if we follow Him to be like Him, then if we do that, we can then please God and we can save ourselves.
Now, yes, we are called to follow Him and be like Him, and even when necessary to drink the cup of suffering with Him, but that's only a call that we can obey after He's done this, after He's drunk the cup of God's wrath toward our sins, after He has dealt with our sinfulness and taken away our guilt so the sin could be removed from us, so we could be reconciled to God, so that we could have the Spirit, the Helper, inside us.
And then, then, after He's done that, we can be submissive, like Him and to Him. Now, left to ourselves, we naturally assert ourselves, or we wilt away, like Peter, or we betray Him for some money, like Judas.
That's us, left to ourselves. That's our type. But thankfully, we're not left to ourselves. Jesus, the submissive Lord, has stepped forward for us. He's acted so that none of His people would be lost.
He went to that garden, knowing what would meet Him there, and He submitted to it to save you, if you are one of His sheep, with true, steadfast faith in Him. He stepped forward on your behalf. He declared, I am, and He took the punishment that you deserve.
So don't try to assert yourself that you don't need that. I don't need Him to do that for me. I'll fight for Him. I'll lay down my life for Him. No, don't try that. Just submit to Him. Thank Him that He drank the cup the Father gave Him to drink.
And now, won't you drink the cup He gives to you?