Arresting God - [John 18:1-12]

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There's a saying that revenge is a dish served or best served, what, cold.
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Benedict Arnold took revenge, seems appropriate since it's Independence Day weekend.
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Benedict Arnold took revenge on the United States by turning on his comrades, his brothers in arms that he'd fought shoulder to shoulder with, apparently because he felt slighted that he didn't receive enough credit for his feats on the battlefield, didn't receive the promotions he thought he should get.
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And there are differing theories, but just think about this, how much hatred would you have to have for somebody or some cause during the midst of a war to change sides?
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Now imagine how much hatred someone would have to have in their hearts to betray someone who'd never done anything wrong to them, who had only done good to them.
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What sort of darkness possessed the heart of Judas Iscariot?
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For more than three years, he was daily by the Savior's side, watching, listening, seeing his ministry really from the front row.
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He was right there. And on the outside, Judas was completely loyal to Jesus.
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Nobody served with more zeal than Judas Iscariot did. In fact, none of the other disciples, when
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Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me, no one suspected Judas. On the outside, he was loyal, he was one of the disciples, he was one of the good guys, but on the inside, he was bitter, he was disappointed, maybe even angry.
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Why? Because things weren't going the way he wanted them to. His sinful attitude made him a willing recipient.
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When Satan said to him, basically, switch sides.
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Satan, who only intended Judas harm, convinced him, and Judas betrayed the
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Lord. Our text today is John chapter 18 verses 1 through 12.
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And we'll see this treachery. John 18 verses 1 to 12.
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When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook
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Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
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So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the
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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?
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They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them,
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I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
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When Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.
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So he asked them again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
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Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go.
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This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. Of those whom you gave me,
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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.
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The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword in its sheath.
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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
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Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. Now last week, we finished looking at the upper room discourse.
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The last supper, the last evening of Jesus' ministry with his disciples. We focused on the unity that Jesus prayed for.
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Knowing that he would soon be put to death, he wanted to both comfort them. Remember, they were troubled in their spirits.
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And he wanted to encourage them to have greater love for one another.
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He even prayed for them and prayed for their unity. And that unity is the will of Jesus Christ for his church.
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Remember, he didn't pray for them only, but for all who would come to faith through their word.
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Christian unity must be focused on sound doctrine. And unity must also be focused on devotion to the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself. But this morning, as we switch to really what is,
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I mean, as I think about it, it's almost like an epic kind of cinema experience.
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Because we see, you know, our unblemished hero, Jesus, and then the traitor lurking in the background and going off and doing his skullduggery.
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I've always wanted to put that in a message, skullduggery. And Peter, the proud but flawed apprentice, as it were.
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And all the disciples, all this drama all surrounding him. And this morning, we'll see kind of the first scene of this climatic experience of Jesus' last few days here.
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We have four sort of pictures of Jesus.
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Stages of, we're going to focus on him this morning and not so much on Jesus.
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We'll talk about him, but the focus really is on Jesus. And our first one is the God -man, Jesus, remains steady.
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He remains steady. He doesn't go wobbly, in the immortal words of Margaret Thatcher. Verse 1, when
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Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook
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Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
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Now, at the conclusion of this rather monumental and eventful evening,
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Jesus had prayed, and after the prayer, they left the upper room and they crossed a brook.
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Now, it's funny to me when, to describe it as a brook, when Janet and I went to Israel 20 years ago, before we went, we took a class, and it was called the
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Geography of Israel. We took that class, and I just remember them saying that the climate was much like California's.
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And I thought, well, that's comforting. At least we know what we're going to get into, right? Because we lived there basically our whole adult lives.
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Well, in California, we have rivers. How many of you have been to California?
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Okay, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say we have rivers, and these rivers are nothing.
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I mean, they are concrete channels, right, that are basically empty almost the entire year round.
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But if it rains long enough, those things get full, and you go, okay, now that is a river.
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And every year, there's a picture of somebody who gets, you know, decides it would be fun to go swimming in the river, and, you know, there they go down the river, you know, 15, 20, 25 miles an hour, and they can't get out.
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When we talk about the brook Kidron, it's kind of the same thing. So when he says they crossed the brook, what are they doing?
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They're crossing across not a concrete channel, but basically across a little culvert, a gully that's bone dry.
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When it rains a lot, a lot of water flows through it, right? But most of the year, it is absolutely dry.
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You're just walking through what they would call in that region of the world, a wadi, right? I mean, you're just walking through just a little culvert.
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You could see where all the silt and the sediment and everything is, but it's dry, and that's what they did. I just wanted to talk about that.
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Now let's talk about the garden. This is the scene that we're in here. Let's talk about the garden a little bit.
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It's likely, you know, because we will talk about this, and it seems like it's more than just like, you know,
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Janet's been growing a little, she calls it a garden, a little flower bed out front, right?
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It's nothing like that. Then we think about, well, maybe it's, you know, more grown up or whatever.
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Oh, it's grown up. But this is likely walled. In fact, the verb there that says they entered would seem to indicate that it's some kind of a shelter.
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And it seems likely, we're not really told, but we'll bring in more evidence later, we're not really told this, but it seems likely that this was some kind of a structure that Jesus and the disciples were permitted by the owner to stay in, because they did that quite a bit.
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In fact, we see that in verse two, this is a very familiar place. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place.
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For Jesus often met there with his disciples. So to give us a clearer picture,
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I read Matthew intentionally, because I wanted us to talk about Gethsemane. It's the same evening where he goes and he prays there.
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And Gethsemane means oil press. So the picture here is probably of some place where olive oil was pressed.
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It was probably some kind of a building where this was done. Luke records it this way in Luke 22, verses 39 and 40.
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And he came out, talking about Jesus, and went, as was his custom, listen to that, a familiar place, right?
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As was his custom to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into a temptation.
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This is a place that they knew well. He met there often with his disciples.
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Listen again from Luke. This last week that he's alive, Luke 21, verse 37.
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He was consistently spending his nights there, and every day he was teaching in the temple. But at night, he went out and lodged on the mountain called
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Olivet. Now, why is it that John doesn't record the prayer here in the
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Gospel of John? I mean, it's kind of odd, isn't it? Why doesn't he mention that? Because they go from dinner, and he skips over the prayer entirely.
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He just talks about them walking into this garden, but doesn't talk about the prayer.
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Well, we need to keep in mind that John's writing this gospel maybe 55, 60 years after these events have taken place, decades after the other
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Gospels have been written. And his purpose is to highlight the deity of Christ, and so he's taking certain scenes and sort of emphasizing them.
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In fact, he's the only one who writes about the Upper Room Discourse. Why? Because it shows the deity of Christ and shows the compassion that he has for his disciples.
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Now, I'm going to talk a little bit more about movies. In movies, there's something called the fallacy of the perfect tree.
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And you go, what's that? You've seen movies like this, where there's a whole forest, right?
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And the good guys are going through the forest, and not that whole huge forest, hundreds of square miles of forest.
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The good guys are going through the forest, and the bad guy is waiting on exactly the right tree to jump on the good guys.
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And you go, how did he know that? Well, it's because it was in the script, that's how he knew it.
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The good guys don't read the script, the bad guys do. So how did
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Judas know where to take the Roman soldiers and the
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Pharisees and whatnot? Well, because he'd been there. It wasn't any kind of mystery, right?
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If you just read through John quickly, you might go, well, Judas sure struck gold there, you know, his first shot.
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He knew exactly where Jesus was. No, no, he knew exactly where they were because this was the plan all along.
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Now, why is this described as being, you know, Mount Olivet, you know, the
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Mount of Olives? Why is it described that way? Well, Gethsemane, this olive press, this olive oil press, is right on the edge of it.
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You go, you leave Jerusalem, you go down this little culvert, and you start up the Mount of Olives.
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And it's right on the bottom of the Mount of Olives. And you go, well, why there?
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Because during Passover and other holidays, Jewish men were required to come into Jerusalem.
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And by Jewish law, they had expanded it a little bit because the Pharisees were a little bit flexible.
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And they would allow you to stay just outside the proper borders of the city. They could stay at the foot of the
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Mount of Olives, but they couldn't go up to where Lazarus and Martha and Mary lived. This is as far as they could go.
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It was this little garden in Gethsemane. So, now we've kind of seen the place here.
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Now, I would also notice that the verb translated, who betrayed him, talking about Judas, is better translated by the
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New American Standard. Usually, the ASV is fine. There are a couple of times here today where I didn't really care for it, and this is one.
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It says, who betrayed him, like it's already happened. The NAS says, was betraying him, which is better.
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Because this was an action, you know, an ongoing process of him betraying
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Jesus. Kind of a crime in progress, as it were. Judas is on the way.
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So, God -man stays steady.
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He doesn't wobble. He stays with his routine. Second, the God -man betrayed.
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Verse three, so Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the
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Pharisees, went there, went to the garden, with lanterns and torches and weapons.
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Now, Judas knew that the chief priests and Pharisees had wanted to arrest
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Jesus, since he healed the man born blind. In fact, if we went to, I think it's Luke 22, the beginning, we'd see that they still wanted to get him, and Judas knew this, and so he went to them, and that's where they cut the deal.
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They wanted him because he healed the man born blind on the Sabbath, if you recall. There'd been many opportunities for them to take him, but there was a single problem, and that problem was the crowds that were around.
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And so what would happen is Jesus would either elude them somehow, where it's not even explained how he just escaped, or sometimes they thought the better of it because they didn't want to upset the crowd.
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And this was important because the religious authorities didn't want to spark any kind of rebellion, any kind of movement of support for Jesus.
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Why? Because it was risky for them. If the Romans perceived that they'd lost control, that the religious authorities had lost control of the people of Jerusalem, then they would lose their power.
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So it was important for them to get Jesus alone or in isolation so they could arrest him, and Judas knew this.
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He knew it very well, and he also knew that Jesus was going to the garden that night. The garden was as good as it was going to get in terms of isolating him.
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So Judas went to the scribes and Pharisees. They, in turn, appealed to Pilate, who had extra troops at his disposal.
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Why? Why would the Romans have extra troops there? Because it was a celebration, and the
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Jews had a history of rebellion, and they would rebel over and over and over again. So whenever there was one of these big festivals in the city of Jerusalem, the
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Romans would send extra troops into town, and they would put them up at Antonius' fortress, which is very near the temple.
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It's not clear how many troops were sent that night with Judas. A full complement would be somewhere between 600 and 1 ,000.
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They didn't send that many. And I kind of figure, I mean, this is just my guesstimate, but somewhere around 40 or 50
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Romans, plus several Jewish leaders would have gone with them.
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Why so many, you wonder? I mean, hey, that seems like a lot of people.
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Well, they knew that at a minimum they were going to be facing how many men? Jesus and 11 disciples.
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That's at a minimum. And they would want to have enough so that, in their minds, there would be no fight, no struggle.
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They would just, the Jews would want to, these 12 men would want to surrender.
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Why take the lanterns and the lamps? Because this time of the year, the whole point of the, or the timing of the festival is so that there is a full moon.
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So there would be ample moonlight. So why take these torches and these lanterns with them?
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Because Judas told them where they were going. They were going into a building or into a heavily wooded area where it would be easy to hide.
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It would be very simple for Jesus and the disciples to conceal themselves, make it difficult to find them.
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So they went ready for anything. They're well armed. They've got the lights.
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They're ready for action. Let me read Luke 22 verses 47 to 48.
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While he, Jesus, was still speaking, there came a crowd and the man called Judas, one of the 12, was leading them.
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He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss?
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The disciples had spent the evening with Jesus, eating, listening, asking questions, fretting, doing more than fretting, trying to take comfort in the words of Jesus.
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They must have thought it was a little bit odd when Judas stepped out, when
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Jesus sort of dismissed them and said, you know, what you do, do quickly. But even so, it must have been hard to believe when they saw
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Judas leading these men toward them. It must have been heartbreaking. Imagine the evening that they've had, right?
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The heights of listening to Jesus pray for them and then them being asked to stay with Jesus and falling asleep several times.
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And now here was Judas leading this band that would arrest their master. Luke notes that Judas was leading the group.
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Matthew records it this way in Matthew 26 verses 47 to 49. While he, Jesus, was still speaking,
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Judas came, one of the 12, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
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Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man, seize him.
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And he came up to Jesus at once and said, greetings, rabbi, and kissed him.
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It's hard to even read that, to just think of the viciousness that underlies those words.
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Judas had not only betrayed Jesus, metaphorically stabbing him in the back, but his cruelty in doing so is evidence of his hardness of heart.
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Satan had entered his heart because he was welcomed there. Hendrickson says that this is the foulest deed ever committed.
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So here's this large group of armed soldiers, men of war, coming for the prince of peace.
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Men with torches and lanterns looking for the light of the world.
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A man with Satan in his heart, betraying God in the flesh.
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So we've seen the God -man remains steady, the God -man is betrayed, and third, the
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God -man steps forward. The God -man steps forward. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him.
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Now just pause for a moment and consider that. Jesus knows everything that is going to happen to him.
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He knows about Judas' betrayal. We already know that. And he knows what's coming.
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He knows that these men are coming. He knows what they're going to do. He knows about the trial. He knows about the crucifixion.
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He knows all this. But he doesn't panic. He does not organize a defense.
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He doesn't flee. He doesn't hide. And I know I would.
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If I knew I was going to be arrested and crucified, I'd run as fast as I could. I have to be honest,
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I'd make a lousy second Adam. The first Adam failed,
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I'd fail. Just as Adam was tempted in the garden and fell, plunged us all into sin, here now
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Jesus, tempted not by anything desirous, but just at the idea of getting out of all that lies before him, all the suffering, all the pain, all the agony.
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He's tempted over and over again during his life. From the beginning in his ministry, certainly, when
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Satan takes him up, out to the wilderness, then up to the top of the temple. But here he is, facing a cruel and undeserved death, and he doesn't even flinch, because he's committed to doing the
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Father's will, dying in the place of sinners. He knew what Judas was doing behind the scenes.
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He knew Judas was coming. He knew why, and he did not leave. He was the good shepherd, and he was determined to lay down his life for the sheep.
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He is the second Adam, determined to undo what the first Adam did. Now, we come to a question in our text, verse 4, second part of it.
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Jesus came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek? And again, as I said earlier, the
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ESV, I don't really like the translation there, came forward. It doesn't quite make it. The verb means to come out, so we should think about it as came out, because it's not like Jesus is standing in a pack of men, and the
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Romans all come up, and Jesus steps forward. That's not quite the picture. It's more like they hear from outside the building, they hear the
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Romans and Judas approaching, and Jesus comes out of the building. They don't have to go in and get him.
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There's none of that. He comes out. He doesn't wait to be found.
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He doesn't try to escape detection. He just steps out. They answered him, verse 5,
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Jesus of Nazareth. Now, it's not one person answering. It's a few of them, several, thus they.
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And Jesus, verse 5, said to them, listen, I am he.
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And again, I think if you look at your Bibles for a minute, you're going to notice something.
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You're going to see that he is in italics. There's a reason it's in italics, because it's not in the text.
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It's kind of to make it more readable. They say they're looking for Jesus of Nazareth, and what does he say?
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He says, I am. Ego eimi. Familiar words, right?
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Subtle. And again, something we'd skip over maybe in the English. Seven I am statements.
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This isn't one of those. Some may want to gloss over it and say, well, that's not the point here.
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I think it is the point, and the reason I think it's the point is because what's John's point right in this gospel?
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To underscore, to underline, to emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ is
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God. So they say we're looking for Jesus of Nazareth, and he says,
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I am. And he repeats it twice more in the text here
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John does. I think he only says it once. Jesus says it once more, but it's twice more in our text. And if repetition is emphasis, and it is, then
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John's making a point. Just as when he talks about Judas' betrayal, he does that a couple of times.
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It's to emphasize the fact that Judas is a traitor, the worst of traitors. Look again at verse five.
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Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. Now, the exact timing of the kiss is not clear here in John's because he doesn't give it to us.
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It's not his emphasis. He just wants us to know that Judas is the traitor. But what's interesting from John's rendering of this incident is that Judas didn't need to identify anybody.
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Jesus identified himself. I'm the one you're looking for. I am. His time had come, and he knew it.
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Now, this next verse is really interesting because there's something going on here. Jesus either completely shocks these men with his statement, or he unleashes some power on them.
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Look at verse six. When Jesus said to them, I am he, I am, is actually what he said, they drew back and fell to the ground.
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Now, you can think maybe they were just surprised. And you know how it is. You get in a group of people, and the first couple of guys draw back suddenly, and everybody gets, you know, knocked back and all that.
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It's one possibility. You know, maybe it's some kind of three stooges thing.
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You know, only there are 50 stooges, and they all fall back. Maybe. But I think it's an exhibition of his power.
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He's the king of kings. And even these Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders are going to acknowledge it physically, whether they want to or not.
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He says, I am, and they all fall back, fall down.
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He takes control. Look at verse seven. So he asked them again.
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I mean, this is fascinating, right? Having done this a few times, when the police come to you, they ask the questions.
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Look who's asking the questions. So he asked them again, whom do you seek?
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And they said, sitting on their wallets, as it were,
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Jesus of Nazareth. Now watch in verse eight how he defends his own.
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Verse eight, Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. Again, I am, ego eimi.
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So if you seek me, let these men go. This is so important.
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Again, John gives us that for the third time. Jesus says,
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I am who I am. I am God. And I'm the one you want.
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If I'm the one that you came to arrest, then you need to let these men go.
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This whole text just vindicates Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. Look at verse nine. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of those whom you gave me, talking about the father giving him,
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I have lost not one. Remember in John 17, verse 12, he prayed this, while I was with them,
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I kept them in your name, which you have given me, I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction.
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Ironic to think about that, just a few hours before he prayed that, and here was the lost one coming to arrest him, but he lost not one of them.
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In John 6, verse 39, he said, and this is the will of him who sent me, talking about the father.
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He says that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
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That all the disciples were permitted to leave, ultimately, fulfills the words of Jesus.
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Affirms him as a prophet. Now you might be sitting here, and you're like, wait a second, hold on.
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The father gave him souls. He entrusted souls to him, and Jesus kept those souls.
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He's going to die for them. He's going to make sure that they're raised on the last day. This is not talking about physical preservation, these words.
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It's talking about their spiritual preservation, their salvation, right? Well, Jesus being fully
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God, and by the way, filled with the Holy Spirit, knows exactly what the limitations of his disciples are.
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He doesn't want them arrested, right? Why not? We don't know.
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But among the possibilities is that they wouldn't do very well in custody, that they might fall from grace somehow.
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But here's something else that is really important. Jesus' plan for his church is to do what?
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Is to build it on these men. On their words. Wouldn't do for them to be arrested, tried, and crucified.
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They were to be his messengers, his apostles, right? His word was vindicated.
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Prophets. He interceded for his own priest, and he was in complete control.
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He took complete control of the situation, despite being vastly outnumbered. He's the king. He is determined to fulfill his father's plan.
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Look at verses 10 and 11. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.
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The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword in its sheath.
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Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me? Now the disciples, as we could see elsewhere, had a total of two swords.
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They're facing probably 40, 50 men. Maybe more. They were no match whatsoever for the
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Romans. You think that stopped Peter? Not a chance.
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These men were going to take Jesus over his dead body, which is exactly what would have happened had
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Peter not been listening. Did he not understand that Jesus needed to go to the cross?
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Well, Peter had been listening, but he did not understand, not yet, and this bold man, this brave man would soon deny his master.
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Peter didn't even understand that Jesus had just bought his freedom by negotiating for him, by telling him, you know, take me, leave these men alone.
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This was arrogance and pride at an epic scale. I love again what
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Hendrickson says about it. He says, if it had been the wish of Jesus to defend himself, he had other means at his disposal.
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He doesn't need Peter, in other words. He had, for example, more than 12 legions of angels.
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He didn't need Peter. Luke, the physician, records for us that Peter, or I'm sorry, that Jesus heals
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Malchus. Now there's little doubt that had he not done so, Peter would have been arrested, even though Malchus, being just a servant, wasn't considered all that important.
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It still would have been a crime for Peter to do what he did. All the details aren't recorded for us.
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We don't know how many people saw the fact that Peter cut off Malchus's ear, but John saw it.
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And then Luke, the physician, records that Jesus healed him. Jesus had no interest in resisting these men, these
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Romans. This was the time for the good shepherd to surrender his life for the sheep, to bear their sins upon the cross, and then to rise triumphantly on the third day.
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Now the cup that he talks about. Anytime you see that phrase, the cup, in Scripture, I mean, it's from the
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Old Testament to the book of Revelation. The cup of God's wrath, right?
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It's judgment. That's what it represents. It's what caused
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Jesus to tremble, to agonize, to pray fervently and more fervently in the
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Garden of Gethsemane. He never wavered, but knowing the eternal wrath of God for every sin of every believer was going to be poured out on him on the cross caused him pain just thinking about it, thinking about drinking the cup of God's wrath.
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Nevertheless, he was determined to take it. Let me read just a couple of verses here.
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Luke 22, verses 52 and 53. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him,
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Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay your hands on me.
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He says, you guys are armed as if you're coming for some serious criminal.
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You could have taken me anytime you wanted to, but you didn't. Then listen at the end of verse 53.
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He says, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. They're accomplishing the ends of Satan, and he's very clear about that.
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Matthew, verse 26, or I'm sorry, chapter 26, verses 55 and 56. At that hour,
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Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day,
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I was in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place. Why? That the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
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Then all the disciples left him and fled. This is the concluding scene here.
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They come out to take Jesus as if they're going to face a pretty big squad of men ready to fight.
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That wasn't the case at all. He negotiates his own surrender and the freedom of his disciples.
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And then the disciples leave him and flee. Finally, our fourth truth about Jesus, the
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God man surrenders. Verse 12, very briefly. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the
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Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. Text says arrested.
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Well, that is what they did. But from our standpoint and from the biblical standpoint, we understand he surrendered.
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Why? Because he didn't have to surrender. He chose to surrender.
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He was in control. They weren't no matter what the numbers were. He had the power.
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He could have escaped them. He could have defeated them. He escaped them before. Could have defeated them.
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He had the power to do that. But he permitted them to take him into custody. Surrendered meekly in Psalm 14.
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Verse one, it says, the fool says in his heart. What?
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There is no God. I'm going to propose to you as we close this morning, that is foolish to say that Jesus Christ is not
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God. Judas did that committed high treason.
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But the truth is that every single one of us, when we sin against God, we sin about we sin against Christ.
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We're committing treason. God is the creator and sustainer of all life.
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The Bible tells us that Jesus created everything that exists. He created us.
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He gives us every good thing. When we sin against him, when we violate
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God's word, we are committing treason against Jesus. But we need not suffer the fate of Judas Iscariot, which we'll see in a few weeks.
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We won't really go into it in great detail, but it's there. Why? Because of our own.
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We have no opportunity. We have no power. We don't have the ability to make ourselves right, to redeem ourselves, to pay for our sins.
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We need this God, man, this high priest, this substitute to intercede for us.
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He goes to the cross voluntarily, takes the sins of everyone who will ever believe, dies for them and is raised on the third day.
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When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive his righteousness. It is imputed to us.
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It is accounted to us. Our sin placed on him on the cross.
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And the evidence of that is the resurrection. The father accepts the payment of the son and shows that through the resurrection.
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It is by grace through faith that we are redeemed.
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God's sovereign grace regenerates us, gives us new affections.
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We believe and we are saved. Treason is not unforgivable.
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And I would encourage each and every one of you, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ to repent today, let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, even as we look at what he did suffer and as we anticipate what he will suffer.
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In the gospel of John, we're just reminded again that he went to the cross willingly for our sake.
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For anyone here who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that even today would be the day of salvation, that you would cause them to think about this humble shepherd who loves his own, who lays down his life with joy.
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Why? To please you, father. To redeem a people that you have given him that in the end he might say he's lost not one.
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We pray that you would cause each one here today to be thankful for the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And for those who don't know you, we would pray that they would be convicted of their need for Jesus Christ, of their need to flee to the cross, to believe in him, to trust in him fully.