Well, I do invite you, if you have your Bibles, to turn to John chapter 18 this morning. John chapter 18, as we are moving through now, today we're looking at a part one and two of Jesus on trial, and we are in chapter 18, verse 12, and we'll read through verse 27, and then this evening we'll come back and look at 28 through the end of the chapter. I said last week, maybe this will work out just perfect for landing on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. And I'm kind of making that happen. So that's why we're doing a part one and two tonight. So I've looked at the timeline and I have this, I think, figured out. So chapter 18, verse 12, let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. 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. So that disciple was known to the high priest. He entered with Jesus into the courtyard 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 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 about his teaching. Jesus answered, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews come together. I've said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who've 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. But if what I said is right, why do you strike me? Annas 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. And there we'll end the reading of God's Word. Well, John 18 and 19, really 18 here, which we'll look at today twice, morning and evening, is really Jesus being put on trial, that we would study this trial and understand what Jesus had to endure for us, and not just for detail's sake, but to understand why he had to do this for us, why he was going through this. And John, you'll notice here in this particular section that we just read, John gives a lot of detail to help us understand this, to help us understand, which I think is important to say if we don't look carefully at the intention of the passage, you can miss the big picture of what the gospel of John is telling us about Jesus on trial. I want you to remember the themes that are being developed here. The main theme that we looked at last time, you'll remember at the beginning of chapter 18, a cohort of troops had come to arrest Jesus. And the real emphasis of this passage, the real main point that John is driving to is to demonstrate that Jesus is himself stepping forward to this. He's not running. He's not running at all. In fact, we're kind of amazed at how much control he has over this whole thing. He could have stopped the whole thing right away. All of this, John began with to contrast two garden scenes. You'll notice that that's mentioned there at the beginning. At the moment of great exchange, Jesus has entered into a garden. John is the only gospel writer, as I understand, that doesn't mention Gethsemane. He just wants garden to be filled. He wants us to think about garden, as we looked at last time, that he is now stepping into a place. We looked at Kidron last time, and as a place of Jeremiah said, dry and dead bones. But it would be a place sanctified by the Lord. He has stepped into a garden that's full of death. And it was a direct tie that John's working with. We've seen the creation themes in the gospel of on. We've seen the Exodus themes that he's worked with. It's a direct tie. This is biblical theology. It's a direct tie all the way back to the original garden where the first Adam failed. And now the last Adam is succeeding. And it's a really beautiful study here because all of these troops and these cohorts, remember, it was like, I say it was about a 600-man army of the Romans. They didn't, this whole thing is a really remarkable study to see how much Romans hated rebellions and what they thought of what they thought were rebellions. Here they had all come and in a garden to arrest Jesus. The whole roles have been reversed, we looked at. Could you imagine if in the original garden scene, what had happened is Adam ran away as far as he could from the Lord. And in this particular garden scene, you'll notice that that first statement of Jesus, he steps forward. He's not running. And he's in our place. A remarkable thing. Now, we are taking captive. We are arresting. We are judging God. It is a moving scene that we looked at last time. And here we are today. Jesus is now on trial, and if you follow the thought, if you think about what would have happened in the original garden, had that trial taken place and God not exercised mercy and God had not made a covenant, remember, and God had not in the first gospel announcement planned to forgive and to help Adam, he even shed blood in the original garden scene and covered Adam. Well, think about what would have happened if none of that were true, how the holy courts would have been seated, and God would have taken his seat, and the angels would have been there, and the ultimate execution of justice and judgment falling on us. If you understand Genesis 3.8, that's exactly what had happened, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. We've misunderstood that verse. They heard the rushing noise of the Lord God coming forth in the garden in the Ruach, the spirit of the day. It was judgment day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. God would have taken his seat, the judgment would have been rendered guilty, and we would have been done. Well, I want you to think now of this. Fast forward as we talked about last time, and here we are, the importance of the trial of Jesus in our place. And there's one thing that I would never want to have to go through. It is a trial where I am brought for having done something wrong and then to have to face the judgment of that. Jesus is now doing that. I want you to think of our Heidelberg for a minute when it asked the important question, why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge? And the answer is, so that he, though innocent, might be condemned by a civil judge and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us. So this is the, it's that theme that we're working with here. In our place, substitution, and God wanted to show us that he was now being put under a judgment for us so that we could be released. And that's just what happened at the end last time when they had come to arrest Jesus. He looked at his disciples and he said, take me and let them go. Well, that's the gospel. Release them, forgive them. It's the word for forgive. They're forgiven. I take it. I take it. That's where we are. That's where we are today. The exchange was a big moment. The substitutionary atonement is a big moment. he just substituted. He just stepped into what you deserved. He's now being hauled off to judgment. He has released his own in authoritative command. They are let go. I go. And that's where we are today. Remember, it said in the last section, he did all of this so that he would fulfill what was said, I'm not losing one. That was in the high priestly prayer. He prayed that. I'm not losing one of my sheep. I mean, what a moment to think about. I'm doing this to not lose one of my sheep. Verse 13 tells us that Jesus was first led away to Annas. Annas first, he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. John is giving us some additional information that the other gospels don't give to give us a little more filled out picture of what's happening with Jesus, that before Jesus went to the cross, he had to face two very different kinds of trials. He had to face a church trial, ecclesiastical trial, if you will, and then he had to face a civil trial. So I wanted you to see them both together today. That's why we're doing part one and two. Both of these trials came in threes when you put it all together. What is before us this morning is the ecclesiastical trial, the church trial, if you will. The other Gospels focus on this trial, as it's in threes, and they focus singularly on Caiaphas. We are accustomed in the Gospels to read about Caiaphas more, but John introduces, I think, alone here, a figure named Annas. Annas was the most powerful, influential figure of all the Jewish leaders. The most powerful. That's described in verses 19 through 24 here. Who was Annas? Well, we know from Josephus that Annas had been appointed high priest by Quirinius in 6 AD and would later be deposed by Valerius Gratis in 15 AD. But the scriptures elsewhere refer to Annas as the high priest, which is interesting. You know what happened. Rome had deposed him, and the Jews didn't recognize it. So Caiaphas was the cover. Annas held the power. Annas was the most powerful religious leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was the man in Israel. Annas was notorious for his greed. You know where he got his money? From those little pigeon sales at the front of the temple. Well, who messed with that? Jesus overturned the money bins. Annas was a corrupt man. His whole family was corrupt. Jesus had overturned the tables. Even the Talmud recognized how bad Annas was. And I quote, Woe to the family of Annas. the whole family was corrupt, and Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was his cover. The text wants you to see how bad the plot was and to understand and think about it for a minute. Verse 14 says, it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient. You'll notice that there. He advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. We remembered looking at how the Lord in providence had worked through that statement, but what that told you was Caiaphas and Annas wanted to put to death Jesus for a long time. The point of this was to say and is to say to us, Jesus stepped into the hands of the most corrupt people that he could have stepped into the hands of. You ever complained about politicians? You should be laughing right now. You all complain about politicians all the time. You all tell each other, they're just such corrupt people. Oh, they're all corrupt. They're all corrupt. They're all corrupt. They've always been corrupt. Did you know that? Jesus just stepped in front of the two worst, and he handed himself over to him. That's a remarkable thought. It's a really remarkable thought. Jesus is now handed over. It's a totally illegal trial, by the way. They have broken their own rules with regard to the trial. It's illegal further in the timing of the trial. They have put him on trial between 1 and 3 a.m. on Friday. Who holds a trial then? They knew exactly his popularity with the people. They knew exactly the danger of this. And the whole trial had come with a bribe from the blood money of Judas. And now Jesus is put on trial with a pressure to incriminate himself. Now, is it helpful to stop and say, this is the son of God? Is it helpful to stop and say that nothing of what they charge him with is true? Did you notice in the Heidelberg, though innocent, completely innocent, he didn't do anything? How would you handle this? I don't really want to know. The trial begins. Verse 19. I'm sort of putting this together for you. I want you to notice here, by the way, if you're looking for an outline to this and you're trying to understand, we have a trial and then we have a tragedy and then we have a triumph. And the trial is what I'm focusing on first, but woven into this is a great tragedy. We'll come back to you in a minute. But focus on the trial with me just for a minute to understand it. In verse 19, I skipped down, you'll notice the high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine, his teaching. Don't miss what Annas just did. Tell me about how you got sucked away into this strange doctrine and that you have led this sect of disciples around Israel doing what you do. You tell me about this. I want to know about this. Really an amazing interrogation. All he really cared about was not the truth of it, but who got caught up in it and what he was saying. Who bought into your teachings, Jesus? What teachings are these? He's accusing Jesus, of course, implicitly of splitting the church, of being a rebel and a rebel rouser, and running around and causing all kinds of problems in the church with his strange doctrine. And he's also saying, you are a chief insurrectionist. You've got your little band of followers right here, and you see where this is going to go tonight. They're going to use this to say, this guy's a threat to Rome. You've got to take him out. You have got to take him out. Now, Jesus here is being interrogated as if he's a false prophet. You understand that? The Son of God is being interrogated as if he's a false prophet. Verse 20, Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I've always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together. I've said nothing in secret. I could imagine that was a very calm, collected, and together response. Why do you ask me? Ask those who've heard me and what I said. Indeed, they know what I said. This was an interesting response to think about. If you've ever looked at any sect, you've ever looked at any cult, nobody does this. Nobody does this. When Joseph Smith said he received the plates from Moroni, the angel, remember? Who saw that? He built a whole religion on that lie. You've seen all kinds of cults and sects come up, and they do it in secret. They end up in compounds, don't they? We knew about the one in Waco. This is what cultists do. This is what insurrectionists do. And Jesus here is saying, when have I ever done that? You know exactly what I taught. I've been open about the teaching. You can ask the people what I believe. This is not a mystery. I stood on boats and preached the gospel to thousands, he could say. He revealed the way of heaven. He rightly divided the prophets and preached them properly. He extended his arms about the way of salvation. And with it, he said, look at the works that validate it. I've healed the blind. Who did that? I've raised the dead. Who did that? I mean, it was evident who he was. It was evident who he was. He healed. He forgave. He loved. He helped the vulnerable and the weak and the oppressed. He extended his arms and he said to people, come to me and I'll give you rest. And he didn't hold back in his claims. He didn't hold back in his claims. As he responded, one of the officers takes his palm and goes, pow, right across the face. Deep blow. How dare you respond to the high priest that way? I wonder you could imagine that day when you realize your hand struck the Son of God. Putting this together with chapter 19 here, the soldiers get in their ranks and we know they begin to march. Every military unit that has ever existed does something similar. They march and they salute. And that's what's happening here. They're saluting him in ridicule now as they march and they give him a mock coronation. You'll look over at 19, chapter 3, verse 3. They came up to him and said, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. You know, they would twist a crown of thorns and put it on him. We're going to look at all that. Jesus, in the midst of this, says, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? He didn't have to do this. He did in the sense of the covenant, the father and the son. But think about what he stepped into. If you really believe that I spoke evil to the high priest, testify. Tell me what I did. You ever been struck in the face? Ever been punched? My guess is very few people in this place have been punched. Except when you were a kid on the playground. It's not fun being punched. I've been punched. It's the most humiliating thing to be punched. And I'm not the son of God. I have no idea for the humiliation. Think about this. it must have been for the one who had the glory with his father before the world was, through whom everything was made. And he has come down. And the first thing that happens is a deep, when he's put on trial, a deep blow to his face. So bad was the mockery at Caiaphas' trial that they brought in false witnesses. Remember, this is in threes and the other gospels put this together. But just to give you some idea of it, the Caiaphas' trial, they brought in false witnesses to catch him in a trap. So they have completely now brought in people to lie about him. You know, we see this happen all the time with politicians. You look at what's happening in New York. And I think many people believe that's probably true what happened. Not this. Not this. This is not true. They brought false witnesses in, to catch him in a trap. And we read in Mark, they all condemned him and some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, to beat him, and to say, prophesy. Oh king, prophesy to us as the officers strike him with the palm of their hands. He was made a ridicule. He's laughed at. He's mocked. He's beaten. And people are spitting on his face. You prophesy, oh Savior of the world. Tell us who's hitting you right now. I trouble you. No resistance. No resistance. You think your sin's a little deal? You think sin matters? Now the tragedy. To make sure we understand this, the scene changes and woven into this is his own disciples who have been following him a long time now and who still have no idea why he's going through this. It's really remarkable. They still don't get it. Earlier this week, you know what Peter said to Jesus. You're not washing my feet. Get up. Get up. And Jesus, of course, said, if I don't do this, you have no part with me. What's wrong with this guy, Peter? You know? What's wrong with this guy? He has no concept yet after all this time of why we're doing what we're doing. Or at least he hasn't accepted it. And then in this scene, he tries to stop it all. He grabs his sword and he hauls off and chops off an ear. He's bold. And Jesus, of course, has to grab the ear and put it right back on and say, no, We looked at that last time. But there's something else that he's not yet understood. All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it's written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But Peter said, even if all are made to stumble, I want you to know something, Jesus. I'm not. I'm not. Really? Assuredly, I say to you, Peter, this night, you will, before the roaster, crows? Deny me three times. But he spoke more vehemently. I will not. If I have to die with you, I'm telling you right now, I will not deny you. Now, that's a big picture here. The whole Bible's giving us about us and you see why you need the gospel every week, right? We all assume we understand this and get this. And you see why I gave the law talk this morning about saying we come all poised and together and we're doing so well in life. And truth be told, if we see things the way we should see things, we are Peter. Running through life thinking that we're doing this in our strength and we're good people and that, you know, we're measuring up and we're going to do something for Jesus. We're just going to serve Jesus. We're going to make his name great. How weak are we? I wonder, in light of church life, how many years could you sit and hear the gospel and still not get it? See, it's a fair question. I've told you before, I know I probably overused this, but even with my own father who sat in a church just like this for years, I don't think that gospel ever got a hold of him until later in life, and then I saw it. We're just like Peter. That's why we need to hear this. Woven together into Christ's trial is Peter's greatest failure in life. I don't find that coincidental. That's why it's trial, failure, trial, failure. He wants you to see what's going on simultaneously. Look at verse 15. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now, that disciple was known to the high priest and went to Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest. Jesus is being brought into Annas' house now. You had a giant sort of courtyard, and the house was in sort of a square, and the courtyard in the middle. And the families all lived together in this house. And you had a gate entering the courtyard of the home. Jesus has entered what would have been known as the hearing hall of the high priest's house. A cohort of Roman soldiers has now left, and the temple police are there. Verse 16 says, but Peter stood outside. The other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to her, kept the door, and brought Peter in. Here we go. Then the servant girl, verse 17, at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? I'm not. Not. Verse 18 says in the courtyard was this fire of coals that had been made. And notice the emphasis that Peter was with them and he's cold. It's a chill in the air, you know? I mean, how many times have we come to church and said it's too hot or too cold? Now, I'm not going to listen well today because it's too hot in here or it's too cold. It's cold outside, you know? It's really cold out. I need to go stand over here and warm myself. He's worried about his body right now. and he's ashamed, and that's why John leaves us with this thought that as Jesus is being hauled off to Caiaphas, so he's going to go from, and we don't have that all in John, but he goes from Annas to Caiaphas. What's happening in the courtyard wasn't really what John wants us to think about right now. That verse 25 says, Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Therefore, they said to him, you are not also one of his disciples, are you? Now the soldiers ask it. So he couldn't even handle standing up to a little servant girl. Now, a servant girl has no ability to punch in the face, you know. A servant girl has no real strength to do anything to him. He couldn't stand up to her. So here come the soldiers. That's not going to go well. The soldiers asked the same question. Did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter denied it. And you'll notice in verse 26, the servants of the high priest. Of him whose ear Peter cut off said, did I not see you in the garden? Peter denied it and all of a sudden, now think of the sovereignty of God. Think of the power of God. Think of the orchestrating of all these events in perfect providence. All of a sudden, as soon as he says, I did not. This rooster from hell crowed. I mean, that must have been the worst sounding crow ever. And Peter runs out and weeps bitterly. He had no power. He had no strength. His greatest desire was to follow the Lord. He loves his Lord. absolutely sincere and he tries to stop the whole thing in concern that Jesus is being bound and taken into death his greatest desire listen couldn't stand up to his fear his greatest desire could not stand up to his fear you know how many people celebrate that Jesus died and rose again and we're about to go through this season. And I've often thought, just like we do at Christmas and just like we do every holiday season, do we really understand it? Do we really understand the weight of it? Do we really understand why Jesus had to do this? Do we understand what he was doing? Those are the important questions of the text, aren't they? Why are you doing all this, Jesus? Why are you going through all of this, Jesus? Well, I think there's a wrong approach to this season. Remember when Jesus was carrying his cross and a great multitude of people followed him, and women also mourned and lamented him. But Jesus, think about this, he's bloody and he's carrying the cross. He said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. but weep for yourselves and for your children. What was going on there? They were feeling sorry for him. They were feeling sorry for Jesus. That's not what he wants. That's not what Jesus wants. What we celebrate is what Isaiah told us to celebrate. He was despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Surely he has borne our sorrows and carried our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. Hear it. You know what it said in the middle of Isaiah 53? Maybe the most powerful word. And we, as it were, hid our faces from him. he was despised and we esteemed him not. You are Peter. I am Peter. The perfect, pure son of God was suffering at the hands of these kind of people. Completely innocent. And yet, tonight we're going to see put under a judge to teach us something. What is Jesus doing? Boys and girls, what is Jesus doing? He's being taken in a garden for you. Being arrested. He's being hauled off to judgment for you. He is confessing. He is bearing. He is receiving all of the righteous indignation that we deserve because of our sins as he bows the head and submits to it in your place and shuts his mouth. And the triumph of it all for us is that he did it for people just like Peter. He did it for weak people. He did it for sinners. He did it for people who are so weak throughout the whole course of their lives that we would look at him in confidence and say, there's my life. There's my righteousness. There's my all in all. All sin is a denial of God. While you denied, he stood there, confessed for you, paying even for your denials. Now, when we see how helpless we really are to do anything about our predicament, I think it changes everything. When we see how helpless we are to change our predicament and what Jesus stepped in to do for us, I think it changes everything. Some of you at some point are going to go out and weep bitterly for a whole host of reasons. some of you are going to be broken and crushed some of you are going to hurt some of you at some point are going to wonder if God could ever forgive you I've got really good news for you the message is Jesus didn't go through all this kind of shame that you're studying it's going to get a lot worse for nothing he did it because you're valued to him understand that? He values your life enough to do this for you. He cares this much for you to lay down his life for you. He did it so that no matter how great a sinner you might be, you can look at Peter and remember that. Jesus went all of this, through all of this, so that today you might be released and let go. I close with this thought. One of you last week asked me, and I used it on Sunday night, but I want to make sure it's clear. On Judgment Day, there's two books that are opened. There is a Judgment Day coming and a great white throne judgment, and Jesus is going to take his seat in judgment. Those who don't have him, a book is opened, and it's called the Book of Deeds. Every thought, word, deed, desire, everything, people will have to give an account for. But there's another book. That book is called the Lamb's Book of Life. No deeds are written in that book. You know what's written in that book? Names only. Names of those purchased by the blood of the Lamb whom he stood in for and saved and loved. This is your judgment day. We're studying. And all the horror of it, see what was given to you. Who was given to you? He was bruised for our iniquities. And I pray this season that you learn afresh the depths of his love for you to do what you could never do. That will change everything. Let's pray to him today. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping us to understand through your word the depths of the sacrifice that was made for us. Your judgment is righteous. To think that the holy, pure, innocent one had to stand in and face this kind of treatment is a marvel. But it's the way of conveying to us ultimately what he did before the ultimate judgment seat, which was a righteous judgment for our sins. Thank you, Lord, for teaching us this, for bearing so long suffering, being so long-suffering with us like Peter and for forgiving us and loving us. May, Lord, this deeply affect us. May we be thankful all the more. And may we understand the depths of the love of God. We pray these things in confidence and thankfulness for so great a salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.