John 18:1-11
Jesus Arrested
Introduction
We are beginning today the last section of John’s Gospel. From chapter 18-21 we are going to see the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus. These events of Jesus’ life are so important that the Gospels devote about 1/5 of their content to them. John has shown us over the last 5 chapters the intimate details of Jesus’ last night, and the in depth teachings to His disciples. He concluded this time of teaching with the wonderful, High Priestly prayer of chapter 17, which we finished last week. Now John is going to move us back into the narrative and show us the events that happened next.
One thing we must keep in mind. Jesus is not a victim. As we have seen all along He is in complete control of the events of His life. He was not overpowered by Rome, or tricked by the Jews. Everything that happened happened exactly how it was planned by Him. John 10:17-18 He said, “I lay down my life. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” In chapter 12:27 He said, “Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” In Acts 2:22, Peter said in the first church sermon in history, “Jesus was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing Him to the cross.”
What we are going to see in these chapters are the sufferings of Jesus Christ that were planned for Him by the Father. God is sovereign over these events.
Jesus Prays before His Arrest (v1-2)
After His High Priestly prayer Jesus takes the disciples into Gethsemane (olive press). Gethsemene was an olive grove on the east side of Jerusalem. John doesn’t record what happens there, but, the other Gospels do. This is because John’s Gospel was written about 30 years after the other 3 Gospels. His Gospel compliments the other 3, it doesn’t copy them. Ninety percent of what John writes is new information that does not appear in the other Gospels. He doesn’t need to write about what happened in Gethsemane. His readers had no doubt read Matthew, Mark, and Luke already as they most certainly had been copied and passed around to all the churches for 30 years.
What happened in Gethsemane? What happened after Jesus finished praying in chapter 17? He went and prayed some more. Matthew 26 reveals to us that agonizing hour when Jesus prays alone and says, “My Father if it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.”
It’s really important that He prays this 3 times. To say something 3 times was a way of emphasizing the completeness of something. God is said to be “Holy, holy, holy”, He is completely holy. In Revelation an eagle flies over the earth and cries “Woe, woe, woe”, the destruction of the last 7 trumpet judgments was going to be completely destructive on the earth. The point is, that when Jesus prayed this prayer 3 times, He was demonstrating that He was completely submitted to the Father’s will no matter how much suffering that meant. He was demonstrating not His weakness but His strength.
This is the prayer that came after His high priestly prayer. One of the important reasons Jesus took His disciples out of the upper room and hiked all the way over to this place is so that He could be alone to pray this prayer.
Prayer prepares you for what God has for you. The suffering that was upon Jesus made His heart be greatly troubled and sorrowful. The shadow of the cross was looming over Him, and with the cross the agony of bearing the weight of the sins of the world, and the crushing wrath of God coming down on Him. He was not on the cross yet but all that was waiting for Him was beginning to reach out and press on Him. Prayer prepared His heart for what God had for Him. “Father if it is possible take this cup from Me.” Then moments after praying this, He is ready and says in verse 11, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” Such confident resolve. Such commitment. Such readiness for going forward in the direction that His Father has pointed Him. His will became like steel.
That’s what prayer does to us. It doesn’t just help us accept the Father’s will, it forms our will to be like His so that what He wills we also will. Self-willed people have no prayer life with Christ. Self-willed people cannot pray because it is not God’s will that they are concerned about or conforming to. Prayer is a great measure of whether you are Christ-willed or self-willed.
The Place of His Arrest (v2-3)
Here we see Judas enter the story again. Finally the true Judas is shown. He is the great fake. We have not seen Him since chapter 13 when Satan entered into him and he left to go betray Jesus to the Jews.
In verse 2 it says that Judas knew the place. How did he know it? Because it says, Jesus “often met there with his disciples.” I like the point here that they met regularly somewhere for fellowship. It was the place where deeper teachings and instruction were given, where hard parables were explained, where meals were shared, where prayer meetings were held. It was a place where Christ ministered to them regularly.
Here’s a point for us today: Get in church. Jesus and the disciples met regularly and we are to meet regularly for teaching and fellowship. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…”
It was a familiar place to the disciples and so it was for Judas who was there many times with Jesus. This leads me to another point: Church is not immune to fakes and posers. Judas was a fake and he went into the place where they regularly met. There will be false Christians among the true Christians. There will be tares among the wheat and goats among the sheep.
There will be people who claim to know Christ but as Titus 1:16 says they deny Him by their actions. There will be people who think they are Christians because they grew up in Church, or prayed a prayer, or went to youth camp, or whatever but never show any true evidence of a conversion to Christ. Paul says, “the Lord knows those who are His.”
There will be those that are like Judas who come into church thinking they are Christians and carrying out the agenda of Christ when in reality they are children of the devil and they are carrying out his plans. They cause strife, division in homes and in the church, deception and lead people away from the truth of Christ, distraction from worshiping Christ, they rob the Church of love and promote hate and gossip and back-biting. They do everything their real father, the devil, wants them to do.
And they bring their friends. Judas brings a detachment of soldiers verse . That is at least 200 trained fighting Roman soldiers. Remember that it was the Passover so Jerusalem was packed with hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over to worship. They had all acclaimed Christ as the Messiah only a few days earlier in chapter 12. The Jewish leaders – the chief priests and Pharisees – did not want to start a riot, so they sent a detachment in case there was trouble and they sent them at night so people couldn’t see it was Jesus.
Here’s another point: Judas did not come to Jesus, He came against Jesus. John doesn’t record it for us because its in the other Gospels, but, Judas actually walks up and kisses Jesus on the cheek. Unger’s Bible dictionary describes this kiss as an affectionate act of salutation and respect. Judas had told the group he brought with him that he would identify Jesus with a kiss so they knew who to arrest. He didn’t point his finger from a distance so as to avoid being seen. In the most treacherous act in history Judas brazenly walks up to Jesus and kisses Him as if nothing is happening. He gave Jesus a kiss which was a friend’s gesture of love and respect while he was simultaneously reaching around and stabbing Jesus in the back – metaphorically speaking. I wonder if the 30 pieces of silver were heard jingling in his pocket when he leaned over to kiss Christ’s cheek.
Jesus Perceives Everything (v4)
Then notice in verse 4 that Jesus perceives everything. This is a reference to His omniscience, His all-knowingness that He has because He is God. He knew what was going to happen to Him. There was never a time when He was in the dark about things. He knows everything and He is the Master of everything, even His own arrest.
Here’s what we need to know from that little verse 4: He knows everything that is going to happen to Him and He knows everything that’s going to happen to you. We are afraid often because we don’t know what is going to happen. We can’t know and we don’t need to know. You don’t know if you’re retirement will be there. You don’t know if your situation will ever change. You don’t know if you’re going to have employment. You don’t know how long you’re going to live.
You don’t know but you do know the One who does. We spend so much time worrying about knowing the “what’s” of life when we need to focus on knowing the Who in life. He is our life.
We see this right here in this passage. We see His power and His protection. His power is seen in verses 5-6 when He speaks to the crowd that has come to arrest Him and He knocks them down just by declaring His name. He says “I Am.” It’s that name of God again, “I am”. And the power of the voice of Jesus literally drops them to the ground. There is power in His voice.
A couple verses down in verse 8-9 we see His protection. Jesus says, “If you are looking for me then let these men go.’ This happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled, ‘I have not lost one of those you have given me.’” Jesus was commanding more than 200 soldiers to let His disciples go. This is showing that Jesus not only knows everything about our lives but that He is in control of our lives.
There is something here that I thought about this week that I think is important. It had to happen this way. The disciples had to be scattered and runaway when Jesus was arrested. Sure we can talk about cowardice, and weakness and that they would not stand with Jesus. But, even that is under God’s sovereign plan. He would gather them back together after His resurrection.
The point I thought about was the fact that the disciples could not go with Jesus. This was the point where they actually had to go separate ways from Jesus. From that point forward it was the cup the Father had for Jesus, not for them. It was givent o Jesus alone. They could never go beyond that point.
Now His work as their substitute and ours began. It was His to travel alone and with no other. He was going ahead without them because He was going ahead in their place. It was the wrath of God, their guilt, their condemnation, their sin, their punishment that He was going to take on Himself. They could not go. That is the whole point. God sent His Son to go for them. God sent His Son to go for us.
Conclusion
Greece Debt, Credit Default Swaps (CDS)
Jesus Arrested
Introduction
We are beginning today the last section of John’s Gospel. From chapter 18-21 we are going to see the arrest, the trials, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Jesus. These events of Jesus’ life are so important that the Gospels devote about 1/5 of their content to them. John has shown us over the last 5 chapters the intimate details of Jesus’ last night, and the in depth teachings to His disciples. He concluded this time of teaching with the wonderful, High Priestly prayer of chapter 17, which we finished last week. Now John is going to move us back into the narrative and show us the events that happened next.
One thing we must keep in mind. Jesus is not a victim. As we have seen all along He is in complete control of the events of His life. He was not overpowered by Rome, or tricked by the Jews. Everything that happened happened exactly how it was planned by Him. John 10:17-18 He said, “I lay down my life. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” In chapter 12:27 He said, “Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” In Acts 2:22, Peter said in the first church sermon in history, “Jesus was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing Him to the cross.”
What we are going to see in these chapters are the sufferings of Jesus Christ that were planned for Him by the Father. God is sovereign over these events.
Jesus Prays before His Arrest (v1-2)
After His High Priestly prayer Jesus takes the disciples into Gethsemane (olive press). Gethsemene was an olive grove on the east side of Jerusalem. John doesn’t record what happens there, but, the other Gospels do. This is because John’s Gospel was written about 30 years after the other 3 Gospels. His Gospel compliments the other 3, it doesn’t copy them. Ninety percent of what John writes is new information that does not appear in the other Gospels. He doesn’t need to write about what happened in Gethsemane. His readers had no doubt read Matthew, Mark, and Luke already as they most certainly had been copied and passed around to all the churches for 30 years.
What happened in Gethsemane? What happened after Jesus finished praying in chapter 17? He went and prayed some more. Matthew 26 reveals to us that agonizing hour when Jesus prays alone and says, “My Father if it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.”
It’s really important that He prays this 3 times. To say something 3 times was a way of emphasizing the completeness of something. God is said to be “Holy, holy, holy”, He is completely holy. In Revelation an eagle flies over the earth and cries “Woe, woe, woe”, the destruction of the last 7 trumpet judgments was going to be completely destructive on the earth. The point is, that when Jesus prayed this prayer 3 times, He was demonstrating that He was completely submitted to the Father’s will no matter how much suffering that meant. He was demonstrating not His weakness but His strength.
This is the prayer that came after His high priestly prayer. One of the important reasons Jesus took His disciples out of the upper room and hiked all the way over to this place is so that He could be alone to pray this prayer.
Prayer prepares you for what God has for you. The suffering that was upon Jesus made His heart be greatly troubled and sorrowful. The shadow of the cross was looming over Him, and with the cross the agony of bearing the weight of the sins of the world, and the crushing wrath of God coming down on Him. He was not on the cross yet but all that was waiting for Him was beginning to reach out and press on Him. Prayer prepared His heart for what God had for Him. “Father if it is possible take this cup from Me.” Then moments after praying this, He is ready and says in verse 11, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” Such confident resolve. Such commitment. Such readiness for going forward in the direction that His Father has pointed Him. His will became like steel.
That’s what prayer does to us. It doesn’t just help us accept the Father’s will, it forms our will to be like His so that what He wills we also will. Self-willed people have no prayer life with Christ. Self-willed people cannot pray because it is not God’s will that they are concerned about or conforming to. Prayer is a great measure of whether you are Christ-willed or self-willed.
The Place of His Arrest (v2-3)
Here we see Judas enter the story again. Finally the true Judas is shown. He is the great fake. We have not seen Him since chapter 13 when Satan entered into him and he left to go betray Jesus to the Jews.
In verse 2 it says that Judas knew the place. How did he know it? Because it says, Jesus “often met there with his disciples.” I like the point here that they met regularly somewhere for fellowship. It was the place where deeper teachings and instruction were given, where hard parables were explained, where meals were shared, where prayer meetings were held. It was a place where Christ ministered to them regularly.
Here’s a point for us today: Get in church. Jesus and the disciples met regularly and we are to meet regularly for teaching and fellowship. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…”
It was a familiar place to the disciples and so it was for Judas who was there many times with Jesus. This leads me to another point: Church is not immune to fakes and posers. Judas was a fake and he went into the place where they regularly met. There will be false Christians among the true Christians. There will be tares among the wheat and goats among the sheep.
There will be people who claim to know Christ but as Titus 1:16 says they deny Him by their actions. There will be people who think they are Christians because they grew up in Church, or prayed a prayer, or went to youth camp, or whatever but never show any true evidence of a conversion to Christ. Paul says, “the Lord knows those who are His.”
There will be those that are like Judas who come into church thinking they are Christians and carrying out the agenda of Christ when in reality they are children of the devil and they are carrying out his plans. They cause strife, division in homes and in the church, deception and lead people away from the truth of Christ, distraction from worshiping Christ, they rob the Church of love and promote hate and gossip and back-biting. They do everything their real father, the devil, wants them to do.
And they bring their friends. Judas brings a detachment of soldiers verse . That is at least 200 trained fighting Roman soldiers. Remember that it was the Passover so Jerusalem was packed with hundreds of thousands of Jews from all over to worship. They had all acclaimed Christ as the Messiah only a few days earlier in chapter 12. The Jewish leaders – the chief priests and Pharisees – did not want to start a riot, so they sent a detachment in case there was trouble and they sent them at night so people couldn’t see it was Jesus.
Here’s another point: Judas did not come to Jesus, He came against Jesus. John doesn’t record it for us because its in the other Gospels, but, Judas actually walks up and kisses Jesus on the cheek. Unger’s Bible dictionary describes this kiss as an affectionate act of salutation and respect. Judas had told the group he brought with him that he would identify Jesus with a kiss so they knew who to arrest. He didn’t point his finger from a distance so as to avoid being seen. In the most treacherous act in history Judas brazenly walks up to Jesus and kisses Him as if nothing is happening. He gave Jesus a kiss which was a friend’s gesture of love and respect while he was simultaneously reaching around and stabbing Jesus in the back – metaphorically speaking. I wonder if the 30 pieces of silver were heard jingling in his pocket when he leaned over to kiss Christ’s cheek.
Jesus Perceives Everything (v4)
Then notice in verse 4 that Jesus perceives everything. This is a reference to His omniscience, His all-knowingness that He has because He is God. He knew what was going to happen to Him. There was never a time when He was in the dark about things. He knows everything and He is the Master of everything, even His own arrest.
Here’s what we need to know from that little verse 4: He knows everything that is going to happen to Him and He knows everything that’s going to happen to you. We are afraid often because we don’t know what is going to happen. We can’t know and we don’t need to know. You don’t know if you’re retirement will be there. You don’t know if your situation will ever change. You don’t know if you’re going to have employment. You don’t know how long you’re going to live.
You don’t know but you do know the One who does. We spend so much time worrying about knowing the “what’s” of life when we need to focus on knowing the Who in life. He is our life.
We see this right here in this passage. We see His power and His protection. His power is seen in verses 5-6 when He speaks to the crowd that has come to arrest Him and He knocks them down just by declaring His name. He says “I Am.” It’s that name of God again, “I am”. And the power of the voice of Jesus literally drops them to the ground. There is power in His voice.
A couple verses down in verse 8-9 we see His protection. Jesus says, “If you are looking for me then let these men go.’ This happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled, ‘I have not lost one of those you have given me.’” Jesus was commanding more than 200 soldiers to let His disciples go. This is showing that Jesus not only knows everything about our lives but that He is in control of our lives.
There is something here that I thought about this week that I think is important. It had to happen this way. The disciples had to be scattered and runaway when Jesus was arrested. Sure we can talk about cowardice, and weakness and that they would not stand with Jesus. But, even that is under God’s sovereign plan. He would gather them back together after His resurrection.
The point I thought about was the fact that the disciples could not go with Jesus. This was the point where they actually had to go separate ways from Jesus. From that point forward it was the cup the Father had for Jesus, not for them. It was givent o Jesus alone. They could never go beyond that point.
Now His work as their substitute and ours began. It was His to travel alone and with no other. He was going ahead without them because He was going ahead in their place. It was the wrath of God, their guilt, their condemnation, their sin, their punishment that He was going to take on Himself. They could not go. That is the whole point. God sent His Son to go for them. God sent His Son to go for us.
Conclusion
Greece Debt, Credit Default Swaps (CDS)
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