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In John 18, the apostle Peter did the unthinkable. He denied knowing Jesus. Earlier that night, he vowed to stand with Jesus until the end. But when push came to shove, he denied even knowing his Savior. In today's study, we'll consider Peter's failure, but we'll also consider Christ's grace and forgiveness and how that grace applies to our own failures as well. At the start of the Last Supper, how many disciples did Jesus have? At the start of the Last Supper, how many disciples were there? Pastor fish, there were 12. Absolutely. Gold star. However, shortly during the course, I don't know where we're putting these gold stars, but you got one. So. So 12 disciples sit down, break bread, have a meal, enjoy the fellowship. However, before the dinner is even finished, that number is one less for Judas. The betrayer has gone out. So you've now got 11 disciples headed into the Garden of Gethsemane. Surely there's enough good, faithful individuals. Surely there's enough robust individuals who will stay wide awake all night. Surely these 11 individuals will stand with Jesus to the end. At least a large component of them will surely. Well, as we've read in the text, that's not really what has happened. Scripture tells us that of the 11 that went with Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane, that they did not stay awake, but rather some, if not all, fell asleep shortly thereafter. Even as Jesus himself is agonizing over what's about to go down, they fall asleep and can't even stay at his side throughout the night. So 11 of them are there, and some, if not all, have fallen asleep. However, that wouldn't be the low point in their fidelity that evening. For what would happen is when the Jews and the Romans and the high priest and this large gathering of hundreds came into the Garden of San to arrest their Savior, to arrest their rabbi. When this happened, these 11 individuals would flee into the night. We went from 12 down to 11. By the time Jesus himself leaves the Garden of Gethsemane, we're down to zero. The shepherd was struck. The sheep scattered from Zechariah. However. However. Interestingly, although all of them had scattered, in today's text, we're going to see that two of the disciples stayed close enough by to at least keep an eye on the events that would follow. Two of the disciples stayed close enough to take in what was happening to Jesus, their leader. So let's see who those disciples were as we return today's text. Let's see who those disciples were as we return now to verses 12 through 18. Just today's reading. So verse 12. Now, then the detachment of troops and the captain of the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and. And bound him. As we said before, this was not a group of 20 men or 30 men or 50 men. Rather, a cohort of Roman soldiers had been recruited by the high priest, by the religious leaders, by the Jewish aristocrats, by the Pharisees. They had taken with them a cohort of Jewish soldiers which would have numbered a minimum of 300. And up to 600 or more went with the Jewish leadership up to the garden of Gethsemane in order to arrest Jesus. That's the detachment we see in verse 12. And once they arrested him, they bound him. Verse 13. Then they led him away to Annas first, for he was the father in law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. Now it was the same Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. As a side note, if expediency is underpinning for your theology or your life or your practice, you might want to rethink these things. But expediency is what drove Caiaphas and the others. So he determined as expedient that one man should die for the people. Verse 15. And then Simon Peter followed. He followed Jesus and so did another disciple. We believe that to be John because John oftentimes refers to himself in the third person throughout his gospel. So we believe it's Peter and John who followed him. Now, that disciple, who we believe to be John, was known to the high priest and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her, who kept the door and brought Peter in. And the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, you are not also one of this man's disciples, are you? And he said, I am not. Now, the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals, they stood there for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself. All right, let's stop there. Now, one of the questions I had a number of years ago when I was first looking at this text with the intention of preaching, it was, you come across Annas, you come across Caiaphas, and they're both referred to as the high priest. And one of the thoughts occurred is, how many high priests can there be? You know, there's some vocations, there's some jobs that Are singular. You have a president company that have CEOs and you would think Israel would have a high priest, not multiple. So my question at that time, and your question may be, how many high priests can there possibly be? With that said, in verses 12 through 18, two of them are identified here. There's a high priest whose name is Annas, and there's another high priest whose name is Caiaphas, who is related to Annas, who's actually his son, son in law. Now why this distinction here? Why two high priests? Why take them to the one high priest and then go to the other high priest? What's going on here? Well, you have to remember that what was happening here was that there were two high priests that were validated by two different groups living in the same five mile radius. There were two groups vying for power there locally. One was the Jews, who had been there a very long time. The other was the Romans. And each had a different thought on who should be the high priest. The Jews liked Annas. Annas had been the high priest for a long time. They liked Annas. Now Annas was not especially good guy. Annas was guilty of all manner of sins and iniquity, but he was their choice. He was the choice of the people in Jerusalem. With that said, the Romans liked local leadership that they could pull the strings on. They liked local leaders that were accountable to them, not necessarily beholden to the people. So the Romans had deposed on the basis of their occupancy there. They had deposed Annas. And in their view, he was not the high priest. However, Caiaphas, his son in law was. And he was a political puppet of Rome. With that said here in this text, we see that the Jewish leadership, the aristocrats, the priests, their servant Malchus and others, when they had a choice where to take Jesus of their own accord, they went to Annas first because he was the guy that they valued more. So they take him to Anaphas. And they do so, interestingly, in the dead of night. And Jesus is going to seize on that in just a few verses from now when he says, hey guys, what I do, I don't do in secret the way you do it. You've taken me here in the middle of the night. Well, that's what they're going to do in today's text, or in these verses, verses 12 through 18, it's the middle of the night, they take him to Annas. And this has all the hallmarks at this moment, going forward, of a kangaroo trial, so to speak. A trial that's not legitimate. That's not based on that which was right and fair and just. There's going to be a number of violations in their trial, starting at this very moment, beginning with trying them in secret at night. Secondarily, the denied him witnesses. And Jesus is going to ask, where's the witnesses? Thirdly, they already had determined that he was guilty, which is not the least of the things they're doing wrong in these proceedings. So verses 12 through 14 describe the initial steps, you could say, of what would be a political prisoner transfer. They've arrested Jesus. They've seized this wonderful, kind, gentle man, this saint among men, this person, perfect individual who did nothing but love and share kindness and heal people. Everywhere he went. He just had healed Malchus's ear. I mean, Peter, remember, he struck off the ear here just a few moments ago. What did Jesus do? He goes and he heals the ear. And everyone saw that he who had a stump of ear now has a working ear. And it was only possible because this man stood before him and touched him. The same man who also in last week's study or our last study, had said the words, I am, I am, which goes back to the book of Exodus. And everyone fell flat, flat when they heard it. The Romans, the Jews, everyone that was there should have understood, not only through hearsay and what other people have said, that this man was good and just and right and perfect, but also in their own observation of him just in the garden, they should have realized this is not the guy that we should be arresting. However, they do so. So they arrest him, and there's begins this political prisoner transfer. And as we'll see in the next few weeks, Jesus is going to get shuffled around a lot because there's going to be a number of individuals who don't know what to do with him. He's going to go from Annas to Caiaphas, to Pilate to Herod, back to Pilate and the like. This political transfer, this hot potato, so to speak, is going to jump on a number of places before Jesus ends up on the cross. All right, so in these verses 15 through 18, we see that as this political transfer, this prisoner transfer is taking place as Jesus is being led from one point to another from the garden to the home of Annas the high priest. We see that two of the disciples, not 11, certainly not 12, but two of them are at least staying within earshot to kind of take in what's going down. They're not willing to stand right next to him and to hold his hand through it. But they are willing to at least observe what goes on. And that's of course, Peter and John. However, as they do so, and as we just saw in these verses, Peter in particular tries his best to blend in. He sees soldiers over there warming them by the fire. It's kind of cold because it's the middle of the night. So he goes over and he kind of warms himself there. And he's watching Jesus over there, but he's warming himself by the fire. So he's keeping an eye on the proceedings while simultaneously not getting too close, know that they're associated. He wants to be close enough to Jesus to sort of observe Jesus from afar, and yet not so close that the world hates him, which is one of the main problems even we have as Christians. We want to be close enough to Jesus to receive the benefits of Jesus, yet not so close to him that we are accused by others of knowing him or being affiliated with him. That's just a shade within Judas error of betraying Jesus with a kiss. Just a shade within it. Nevertheless, there is Peter warming himself by the fire, which is illustrative there of the great mistake he's making. He's warming himself by the fire. It's only Jesus that can spare him from the fire in the larger set. So that's what's going on in these verses. Now, before we look at verses 19 through 24, I want to remind you of something that was shaping the political conversations that were being had by Annas, by Caiaphas, by Pilate, by Herod, and then by Pilate again. Jesus, as we said, had gone from place to place to place, preaching and teaching, but also healing people. Not just healing people, but raising people from the dead. In John chapter 11. We studied this a couple months ago. In John 11, Jesus raised someone from the dead. The name starts with an L. Who is it? Lazarus. Not Larry or anything. Lazarus. So Lazarus. He raises Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11. Now that was on top of all sorts of other things. He's feeding 5,000 people with just a handful of bread and fish. He's doing miracle after miracle. He raises someone from the dead. The Jewish leadership, remember, they were challenged on two fronts. The first challenge they had was that they didn't like it, that that guy and his fishermen, tax collector disciples were usurping their authority. That guy with his miracles and his fancy talk is taking the people, the attraction of the people, away from us. They're no longer listening to us so much. They're listening to him. And his fishermen and his tax collectors. Remember, he had a motley crew of disciples, at least in their eyes. So that was one problem. They had pride. They were angry at what he was doing. The second problem they had was that if he keeps doing this, if he keeps galvanizing and polarizing people in such a way that they turn to him by the thousands, as they were, if he keeps doing this, what's going to happen to us when Rome finds out? What's going to happen to we who have been put in place as the political puppets, when the one pulling the strings realizes that this Jesus is messing up their plan? Well, what's going to happen is they're going to get rid of us, that guy, if we let him keep doing the things he's doing, if we let him do what he's doing, then we are going to be in danger and Rome is going to deal with us. Now, back in John chapter 11, right after Jesus raised Lazarus, all that came to a head. The Jewish leadership says, we got to do something. We have to do something. We can't let this continue. So in John 11, we read this. Some of those. Some of these individuals went away to the Pharisees in secret and told them the things that Jesus did. And then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? For this man works many signs, and if we let him alone like this, everyone's going to believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Now, one of them, Caiaphas, that's where he's introduced back in John 11, one of them, Caiaphas, being a high priest for that year, there's an interesting way that's qualified there being high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it's expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. All right, you see what Kaiva says. They're all complaining. They're saying, this can't be. This guy is going to ruin our standing with Rome. They're going to come take away our place, meaning our position, our leadership, our role. The puppet master is going to pull the puppets back. And furthermore, they're just going to take away our nation. We keep this up, we are going to be gone. We got to deal with this. We got to deal with this. We got to deal with this. And Caiaphas in essence said, look, there's only one way to deal with this, boys. There's one way. Can you guess what it is? This man has got to die. It's expedient. Remember that word? We don't like that word when it's used in theological context. It's expedient for one man to die that the rest of us might live. Jesus, he's got to die. And if he does, then the problem is solved, boys. The problem is solved. So this is what Caiaphas said when way back in John 11. And it sets the tone for everything that's going on. When Jesus is taken to Annas at the start of today's text and when then at the end of today's text, he's going to go back to Caiaphas, who has already made up his mind with what needs to happen to this man. Caiaphas believe this man, this one. Jesus needed to die on behalf of the whole people. And you know what the irony of that is? The irony is he was right. Jesus didn't need to die on behalf of the whole people. He had that part, right. He had that part of the substitute and substitutionary atonement. Correct. Jesus did need to die on behalf of the people, but not in order to save the Jewish people from Rome, but in order to save God's people from God's own wrath. Yes, Jesus did need to die. Caiaphas High Priest got it half right, which was often the case of the priests of that age. All right, let's look at verses 19 through 24. Then the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. This is an interrogation that's taking place. And Jesus answered in verse 20 and said, I spoke openly to the world. I was taught in synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I have said nothing. You see right there what's happening is that in the dead of night, in the dark of night, this kangaroo court has been said. Anna, who wasn't even the official high priest at this time, he begins to interrogate Jesus. And Jesus goes, hey, hey, hey, hey. You want to know what I said? Where's your witnesses? You read the Old Testament, Mr. High Priest. You know there's supposed to be some witnesses here. You want to know what I said? Ask the people who saw me say it time and time again. I didn't do my business in secret. You do. I have been public about everything I've been saying for a long time. It's all out there. And you, Mr. High Priest, if you were doing your job fairly, correctly, if you're doing it in accordance with the old Testament precepts. When it comes to the role of witnesses, you would have witnesses here to interview and speak to. Instead, you go directly at me with an accusation in this kangaroo court. And you do so in the dead of night, with your mind already made up. This is what Jesus throws back at him. In verse 20, he says, I spoke openly in the world. I always taught in the synagogues, in the temple where the Jews always meet. Synagogues and temples. Not here in your house, Annas. We always meet there and in secret. I've said nothing. So why do you ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said. Them. Indeed, they know what I have said. Said so he just wants them to do it by the Book. Let's do this in accordance with this and not just make this up as we go along. That okay with you, Annas? Now, what's the response? Well, we see that response in verse 22, that when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus, struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, do you answer the high priest like that? And Jesus answered him. It's a fascinating answer to him at all. You know, Jesus could think a thought, say a word, snap his fingers and eviscerate this guy from the planet himself. The guy who slaps God in the face. But he doesn't. He answers him and he says, all right, if I've spoken evil, you've slapped me. My face is red. If I did that which is wrong, if I have spoken evil, then bear witness of the evil. Let's do it by the book. Bear witness to the evil. What is the evil? Why did you do this? Remember, he keeps trying to do things the way that they're supposed to be done. So it says, if I have done that which is wrong, if I've spoken evil, then you bear witness of the evil. But if I've done well, then why did you strike me? Then Anna sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Let's stop there for the moment after Jesus responds. Whenever people ask him anything, they're always so confounded. They don't know what to do next. They either leave or send him away. And in this case, they send him away to Caiaphas. All right. So as we said before, verse 19, the interrogation has been begun. It's the dead of night. There's been no advocate or intercessor appointed to him. There's no lawyers, so to speak. There's no witnesses have been produced. There's just a kangaroo court. The high priest is, I guess, the Head kangaroo here. And first off, notice it on verse 19 that what he does initially is he asks Jesus a question about two different items. Number one, tell us about your disciples. And number two, tell us about your doctrine. He wants to know about the disciples and the doctrine. Now why the disciples? What do you want to know about the disciples? Disciples? Well, think of the questions that he was probably coming to his mind. How many disciples do you have? Who are they? Imagine if Jesus said that guy over there, the guy by the fire, he's, he's one of them. Of course he doesn't. But the high priest wants to know, how many disciples do you have? What are their names? How deep does this insurrection run? Right? So he ask him questions about the disciples to understand the depth and scope of Jesus's, his infrastructure there, of his ministry. Then he asked about his doctrine. And the assumption is that Jesus doctrine is different than the High Priest doctrine. And it was. But Jesus doctrine was 100% in line with this, with what the Old Testament said he would be and what he would do. So his doctrine, the high priest assumed it would be different and therefore heretical. It was different, but it was not heretical. Now in response in verse 20, as we saw Jesus response to those questions about disciples and doctrine is to instead press back on Annas regarding the illegality of the trial itself. In verses 20 through 21, Jesus says that thousands had witnessed, multitudes had witnessed his words and his deeds. He spoke in the temple, he spoke in the synagogues. There's all manner of people who heard what he has said. He doesn't need to stand there in front of them and answer. In fact, they should be going to the eyewitnesses principally in order to find out what he had said. And so that's what he presses back on. He said, says, where are the witnesses? Where are the witnesses? I've said plenty and everyone has heard it and I didn't do my stuff in secret like you. So let's find the witnesses. Now in response, as we looked at in verse 21, one of the officers, when Jesus says this, one of the officers there in order to defend the honor of the high priest, which is just a silly concept at this point given that he had no honor but one of the officers there of the high priest, he hears Jesus answer and his response to words of truth, his response to hearing the word preached from God himself. Remember this is God. God is looking people in eyeball. God is speaking. When Jesus spoke, they were hearing God. And the response of this hardened hearted individual was to hear God speak and to slap him with the palm of his hand is what it says. How ironic. The humility of God himself to enter into that volitionally in order to save you. The humility of Jesus Christ undergo getting slapped and spit upon or rejected and humility humiliated and ultimately crucified for what? To save you. The humility of that is tremendous, but also so is the cost with which you were saved. God himself came off a throne for that. To get slapped around for why for you? The whole time no one would intercede for him. Peter's over there messing around by the fire. No one was interceding for him. But even that moment he was interceding for me. Whatever the case, Christ's response in these verses is to stay calm, cool as a cucumber. And the reason why is because they were not unlike you and I. If he wanted to snap his fingers and eviscerate rebels and enemies, guess what? We would already been gone. All of us would have been gone. If Jesus Christ wanted to eviscerate those who had rebelled against him, you might not have slapped him in the face, but you slapped him in the face figuratively. Even if you've not done it literally. And he didn't smite you, just as he doesn't smite this guy. Why? Because he came to save individuals like those gathered around them. Remember, even on the cross. What's he going to say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus came to save the sinners and the rebels and the people who slap him figuratively and literally. What a good God that would do such a thing. All right, let's. With our remaining moments, let's. Let's look at the last verses of Today's reading, verses 25 through 27. And it's interesting that John keeps going from Jesus to Peter, right, from Jesus to Peter. The juxtaposition between the faithfulness of the rock, Jesus Christ, and the faithlessness, at least for the moment, of one who was called the rock. Petros, Peter himself. Let's look at verses 25 through 27. Now, Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. His rabbi is getting slapped around and he stands there warming himself, looking after his well being. And therefore they said to him, you're not also one of his disciples, are you? It's interesting how this keeps being phrased. You're not. Hey, you're not one of his disciples disciples, are you? And he always jumps at that out. You're not one of the disciples, are you? Of course not. No. You must have Me mistaken. So that's what we see in verse 25, he denies it for the second time. He says, I am not. But then verse 26, one of the servants of the high priest, a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off, someone who was probably in a position to recognize this guy, says, did I not see you? Did I not see you in the garden with him? Did I not see you in the garden with him? And the guy's putting the dots together. It had been nighttime, yes, and yet someone had struck the ear off of his relative. And I think it's that guy standing right there by the fire. Didn't I see you? Weren't you the one? Weren't you the guy? Verse 27. This Peter denied again and immediately a rooster crowed. Earlier on, at the Last Supper, earlier on in their time together, Peter had said that he would be faithful to the end. He had always told Jesus that I'll stand with you, I'll be at your side. Where you go, I go. And vice versa. I'm your man. I'm your man. Now, in fairness, in contrast to the other disciples, Peter probably was more stout hearted and courageous than they were. He was probably the rock, at least in context of other people who are maybe a little more squishy. I mean, after all, he at least is here. You know, there's 10 of the other guys aren't even here. So at least he's here. And he had the strength and courage and conviction to slash off ears there when he thought he was protecting Jesus. So there is courage to a degree in Peter. And yet, even as Peter had told Jesus, I'm your man to the end, it's you and me, Jesus. Even as he had said that to Jesus, Jesus early on said, Peter, Peter, Peter, what's going to happen is not what you think is going to happen. What's going to happen is going to be the exact opposite. In a matter of hours, not like days or weeks. Peter, in a matter of hours after you just told me how faithful you're going to be, in a matter of hours you're going to deny me. And it's not going to be one time. You're going to do it three times before the rooster crows, before morning comes, before this night ends, three times you're going to deny me. And of course, Peter's response, no, never, never me, never me. However, here we see in verse 27, that's exactly what happened. Peter denies Jesus and the rooster crows. Now other gospel accounts fill in the details about this last denial and they Add a couple things that are interesting. One of them is this, that when he denied Jesus this third time, Scripture says that he cursed. He used profane language. It's the equivalent of saying, I don't know that blankety blank man. He was emphatic. Even our text has the exclamation point for the emphasis. He was emphatic. This wasn't him. Kind of shying away from the question. Yeah, I'm not sure. I may have seen him before. Nothing like that. It was emphatic. I don't know him. You. You've got me wrong. Stop thinking I'm with that guy. I'm not with him. I'm not with him. I'm not with him. That was the nature of betrayal. Now, what happened? He says these things. The words are out of his mouth. The rooster crows, the rooster crows, and then what does scripture say happens next? Scripture says that Jesus at that moment, looked right at him. Scripture says that at that moment, as the words came out of his mouth, as the rooster crows for the third time, just as Jesus said it would, that Jesus looks over and he looks right at him. And you've got to think. You've got to think that Peter felt the weight of that gaze for the rest of his life. As we close this morning, you and I. You and I can be very faithful in the abstract. We mentioned this a few weeks ago. We can be very faithful in the abstract, as Peter was faithful in the abstract. We can sing songs like I Surrender All. We can sing songs that talk about our fidelity and faithfulness. We can assume that if we were in Peter's position, I wouldn't have messed up like Peter did. We can assume, unlike Thomas, I wouldn't have doubted. We can assume that we wouldn't do those things. I don't know why we think higher of ourselves than we do of them, but we can assume that we would do something different. With that said, faithfulness in the abstract is nothing. It's when your faith is tested that it's proven. It's when it's tested that it's demonstrated. It's when it's tested, it bears fruit. Peter was proud and strong in the abstract, very brave in the abstract. However, in these moments, three times with just a servant girl asking him. It wasn't like this was a general asking the question. It was a servant girl. And he still melts down to a puddle of anxiety and fear. You and I can be very faithful in the abstract, telling God all that we love him, all that we'll do for him, all that we'll give him. I surrender all. I'll give you everything. My life, my health, my wealth. Anything I've got is yours. We can say that if I tell you, is that true? God is your all. In all, you love God more than anything else. I trust. In this room we'd say Amen. I know we're Presbyterians who may not say it aloud, but we'll say it in our minds. Amen. We'll say that God is number one. I love God. But then you'll be faced this week with decisions and opportunities to choose between God and something else that you want, something your carnal flesh might want. Wednesday night. We're going to talk about this at some length in our study, if you're able to attend. But you're going to be given opportunities to choose between other things. Competing priorities, competing points of emphasis. And so often you will choose them. You will deny Jesus, not overtly, and yet in a very real sense, you'll reject his reign and rule over your life in order to pursue that which you want. You will not necessarily give them all. You will give him some. This was Peter, this was Thomas. This was others among the disciples who scattered to the four winds. This is all a fallen, frail humanity in the abstract. We're all faithful. This week you're going to be tested. In particular, what will you do? Think back to this text and respond. Let's pray. To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us@fpcgolfport.org or you can look us up@sermonaudio.com.