[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agape of Abdish Church in George South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning church.
[SPEAKER_01]: As always it's a joy to be here with you this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would please turn it me to John chapter 18 as we continue our study through the gospel according to
[SPEAKER_01]: John 18, we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 14 this morning, 1 through 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: The scriptures are full of stories about men and women who face terrifying circumstances, terrifying circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your thoughts might go to Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: as he returned to Egypt and shuffled his feet into the throne room of Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about it, gold everywhere, high ceilings, the pagan gods staring down at Moses, they're statue staring down at him as he shuffled into the throne room.
[SPEAKER_01]: The man who said to God, I can't speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I go before Pharaoh and speak to him?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he approaches the throne of the king of Egypt with the message of coming destruction and a demand to let God's people go.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a terrifying circumstance for someone who had spent 40 years in the wilderness as a shepherd in the mountains.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you remember Samson.
[SPEAKER_01]: part of his story is where he is bound by the men of Judah and he is marched into an open plane where on the other side of the plane there is over 1,000 Philistines who are hot with rage and they want to murder this man and he is bound and he is being led with thousands of men of Judah behind him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not his ally.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've bound him to hand him over.
[SPEAKER_01]: and with over a thousand angry Philistines of front of him, Samson is marched into the open field.
[SPEAKER_01]: David, sprinting toward Goliath in the valley of Ilat, is definitely a favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all, we all know that story.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can think of that terrifying circumstance, yet David running forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a story that is very, where was very impactful and still is to this day for me,
[SPEAKER_01]: is the showdown on Mount Caramel with Elijah as he faced down 850 false prophets of ball and Ashera.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that story God vindicated this soul prophet by sinning down fire from heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: That one always gave me goosebumps as I wrote about it and thought about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we shouldn't forget about the courage of Esther, as she approached the royal throne of King Ahasuarez, knowing that she did so upon pain of death.
[SPEAKER_01]: She walked in there knowing it was forbidden, as she had not been requested to come into his presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And those who came without permission died.
[SPEAKER_01]: She stepped forward into that throne room
[SPEAKER_01]: for the lies of God's people, we shouldn't forget about these stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: These stories and many others like them speak of the courage of those who stepped forward because of their confident hope in the Lord their God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why they stepped forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Confident hope in the Lord their God that He would be with them as they obeyed Him and did what was right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They knew to be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all of these accounts of courage in the divine, or you could say, of divine courage, because God gave them this courage, and their courage was in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we could call it divine courage.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of these stories of divine courage in the face of terrifying circumstances were laid out for God's people, throughout the whole Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were told and laid out like appetizers, though.
[SPEAKER_01]: These were but appetizers for the main course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the main course of divine courage was still to come, which is where we found ourselves now in John chapter 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now here in John, chapter 18, Jesus steps forward to face the powers of hell.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're reading about this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: So look with me in John chapter 18, beginning in verse one, how Jesus went forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Jesus,
[SPEAKER_01]: Knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek?
[SPEAKER_01]: They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to them, I am he.
[SPEAKER_01]: Judas who betrayed him, a standing with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus said to them, I am he.
[SPEAKER_01]: They drew back and fell to the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he asked them again, whom do you see?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus answered, I told you that I am he.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you seek me, let these men go.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of those whom you have given me, I have lost not one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right ear, the servant's name was Melcos.
[SPEAKER_01]: Put your sword into its sheath.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me?
[SPEAKER_01]: So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, they led him to Anus.
[SPEAKER_01]: For he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people until they're.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, I thank you for this eyewitness testimony from John the Apostle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, we cannot truly imagine cannot truly feel the passion and the fear, the pain of this moment unless you're Holy Spirit grants it to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, I pray this morning as we look upon Jesus that we would feel and that we would know and we would experience Lord, what you have for us in your Word, that we would look and we would love Him, that we would look at His, at the fear of facing the cross and we would feel that this morning Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: that we would feel and know what it is like to be redeemed, to be purchased, to be saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, these wouldn't just be theological words that we study out of a textbook, but that these would be the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: These would be the truth of our lives, the things that we know because we are living them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Father, I pray that you're Holy Spirit would take the words of God this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: that you would impart to us the ability to love Jesus, to delight in our Savior who is both courageous, yet also as the one who went silently.
[SPEAKER_01]: So help us Lord as we look now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We ask these things in your Son's name, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Apostle John was near the end of his
[SPEAKER_01]: He was granted or he was shown the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in this revelation, John sees the Lord Almighty seated on his throne in heaven with a scroll in his hand, which if opened, if this scroll is opened, it will unleash the end of the age.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's happening in Revelation.
[SPEAKER_01]: as the Lord sits on His throne with the scroll in His hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we read that a mighty angel asks the question, who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?
[SPEAKER_01]: That as John looks around, he sees that no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he's sorrowful about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as he begins to lose hope that the glory of God, which is hidden in this scroll that it will never be shown that it will never come to light when he begins to lose hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another one comes to him and says to John weep no more
[SPEAKER_01]: behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what John hears.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's told by another that the lion has conquered.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then when he turns back to the throne to look, he sees with his eyes something very surprising.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, and between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, that's all from Revelation 5.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lamb standing as though it had been slain, think it's neck cut with
[SPEAKER_01]: red blood stained into its fur into its wool.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hears John hears that the mighty lion, liking who has conquered, he has conquered, but then he looks and sees a slaughtered lamb standing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Both are true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is both the bold and courageous lion who goes forth into battle and he is the lamb who silently was led to slaughter both these things are true in one person and I believe this truth about the lion and the lamb is what John is aiming at in our passage this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: As Jesus goes forth to face the powers of hell, He goes forth as the lion and the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: So first, let's look at how He is the lion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice with me verse one, after His words of teaching the disciples and His prayer to God the Father were finished, it says He went out with His disciples across the book, Brook Kidron, where there was a garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: This garden would be the place of testing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The place where Jesus and His humanity would be tempted to follow or to seek His own will rather than the fathers.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the temptation of the garden to save His life and to avoid all this suffering rather than to follow the fathers will.
[SPEAKER_01]: This wasn't a garden of rest.
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually, we think at the back of our houses, we try to make gardens where we can rest and kind of escape for just a moment from the chaos of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that is not what this garden was for Jesus on this night.
[SPEAKER_01]: This would be the place he would sweat drops of blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the intensity of his temptation and suffering in his soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet knowing all of this,
[SPEAKER_01]: it knowing that he would be tempted in the garden and that his hour had come knowing all of this the passage says he steps toward the danger he went out across the brook toward the temptation as one translation says in verse one he went forth in English you can hear him charging into battle in that translation
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a lion moving toward his enemy, moving forward to face his enemy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus went out into the night to be tempted to the point of death were told, that was the depth of suffering in the garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, my soul is sorrowful to the point of death in the garden of Geth Simony.
[SPEAKER_01]: He tells us a Matthew.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was all as his betrayer drew in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: John has been telling us all along that Judas is the disciple who would betray Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now the moment has finally arrived in the gospel according to John.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're told that Jesus knowing what was going to happen, he patiently waits for Jesus to lead a mob of soldiers and officials up the slope of Get Simony.
[SPEAKER_01]: The mob went up the hill with lanterns and torches were told, which would have clearly revealed their coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some estimate there were several hundred people coming up that slope.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was not a well executed ambush which Jesus didn't see coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: John is clear to reveal that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But by this point in the garden, we're told in Luke.
[SPEAKER_01]: that Jesus has already prayed to His Father during the temptation and at the end of the temptation to flee this pain and suffering, we're told that Jesus has already prayed to His Father not my will, your will be done.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus waits for His friend who comes and betrays Him with a kiss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to the mob, whom do you seek?
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though Jesus already knows the horrors that awaited him, he didn't hide behind his disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that the way of human leaders?
[SPEAKER_01]: that when you see danger coming, you put your forces in a ray in front of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you hang back, close to the tint.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as your forces charge and you move the battle around, you make sure that you stay back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so that the general doesn't die, because without me, they would be scattered.
[SPEAKER_01]: Without me, the battle would be lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all what Jesus does.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does not fight like a human general.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it says he stepped forward, he came forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did not let his disciples charge into that mob with their swords flying so that he could just slip away if it didn't go the right way.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: lead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jesus steps forward as the tip of the spear with his disciples behind him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of Jesus at the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is at the tip.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his disciples are behind him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus never asked anything of his disciples that he would not have willingly done himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is clear throughout
[SPEAKER_01]: that he has not already been tempted by suffered through and had the victory over.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're told that in Hebrews 415, if you doubt that Jesus can feel the suffering or the temptation or the pain or the sorrow that you are experiencing right now, go and look at Hebrews 4 verse 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was tempted and he suffered in every way.
[SPEAKER_01]: yet without sin, he was victorious and hopeful in God through it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is the tip of the spear of God, which is his church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: The spear of God, his weapon in his war is his people, his church, the congregation of God,
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus is the tip of that spear, and this spear is thrown into the battle by the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is the tip.
[SPEAKER_01]: of the spear of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went before us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads us into battle and he even charged into the enemy's lines where the most ferocious warriors were and where death was certain because he charged into the battle lines of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's happening on this night in
[SPEAKER_01]: the battle lines of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: My friends, Jesus has already faced the heat of the battle, the hottest part of the war.
[SPEAKER_01]: On this day, two thousand years ago, death lost its sting were told.
[SPEAKER_01]: Death lost its sting because the power of sin was defeated when the lion of the tribe of Judah came forward, stepped forward when he went forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, saying, death is swallowed up in victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, death, he says, where is your victory?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, death, where is your sting?
[SPEAKER_01]: The sting of death is sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the power of sin is the law which condemns us to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because He's already won.
[SPEAKER_01]: He grants us victory because He's already won it and He says, follow me into the battle.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have already faced sin and death and been victorious for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we see in our passage that the lion steps forward and asks the mob whom do you seek?
[SPEAKER_01]: They say in verse five, they answer him, Jesus of Nazareth bold and arrogant as if he was a criminal.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then Jesus said to them, I am here, or I am, I am here, I am,
[SPEAKER_01]: Judas is standing to the side, having already identified Jesus by walking up and greeting him with the kiss.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the officials know they finally have Jesus at their mercy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Surely a few hundred men with lanterns and torches and swords would be able to defeat the 11 disciples if they put up a resistance and surely they could bind one man.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't even have a sword.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the soldiers in the mob were probably moving into position.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've dealt with rebels before.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see them getting starting to move around, starting to encircle him, getting into position.
[SPEAKER_01]: In case there's a little bit of a skirmish after the talking is all done.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were like hyenas encircling Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: As if he was some little springbuck that is leg broken.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're thinking to themselves, what a pathetic human being we faced far more than this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is ours.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then Jesus confesses before them all saying, I am he, I am he.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see the contrast?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel the irony of this moment as God looks on it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Human beings with pointy sticks are confidantly moving into position to subdue the one John has been so diligent to reveal as the great I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: The scene reminds me of Isaiah 31 verse 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or Isaiah writes, for thus the Lord said to me, these are the Lord's words.
[SPEAKER_01]: As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him, he is not terrified by their shouting or dented by their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion in on its hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come to subdue the lion of the tribe of Judah, who John has revealed to be the Lord of hosts, who had come down to fight on Mount Zion in on its hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what's going on right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord had come down to fight on Mount Zion in on its hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when Jesus confesses to the mob,
[SPEAKER_01]: The reality of his deity breaks through the human flesh that veiled his glory, and all those standing in front of him are forced backwards, and they fall to the ground, John says.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's difficult to know if the maud drew back on their own as if they stepped back, because they felt and heard his glory in those words.
[SPEAKER_01]: or it's possible Jesus' words were like a blasting wind of hurricane which threw them backwards into the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, the depths of Jesus' passion on this moment seems to break through his human flesh in the arrogant mob gets a glimpse of his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are thrown backwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: They fall backwards, tripping over one another, and you have hundreds of men on the slopes of Gethsemane lying down before him, fallen to the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having humbled the mob, Jesus asks, again, whom do you seek?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the way they thought of him maybe has changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: in that short moment, whom do you seek?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they say again, and I imagine with far less confidence, they say again, Jesus of Nazareth, I was asking the question now rather than bold and confident
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus answered, I told you that I am here, so if you seek me, let these men go.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus speaks these words to the mob as a request, but the will of the lion would not be challenged.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was not to be challenged.
[SPEAKER_01]: officials and soldiers most likely climbed the hill thinking that they would arrest and kill all of the conspirators that night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: End it then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let this be done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let any of his disciples that inner circle don't let them escape.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's be done with this tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they found the disciples waking up from their sleep from their
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they see Jesus standing in front of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They surely thought this problem is over.
[SPEAKER_01]: This problem is over.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some probably imagined 12 crosses, lining the hill of Golgotha.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would have been victory for many of those officials, those religious leaders.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let this conspiracy end tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: But after being thrown to the ground by the mere words of Jesus, their confidence was shaken.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were not sure of their success anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And suddenly it seemed like a slim chance they'd even be able to leave with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: This display of Christ's power to keep His disciples shows us that the disciples of Jesus, His followers,
[SPEAKER_01]: cannot be touched by enemies, mobs, swords, or guns, they cannot be touched by these unless God permits it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not even famine.
[SPEAKER_01]: disease, poverty, car crashes, cancer, disability, or any kind of calamity can touch the followers of Jesus Christ unless God wills it to be our end.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Father and the Son never lose any of their own.
[SPEAKER_01]: and this should give us great confidence to walk down dangerous and often painful roads with God as he leads us to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the point of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust in the lion of Judah.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dangers of this life are like those shepherds who came out to the lion with their sticks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who walk around with sticks, when the lion is between us and them, they cannot touch us unless he wills it to be the end that we walk through and he will go through it with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: But knowing this fact in our mind doesn't mean we are veterans at trusting in the loving care of our shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: to trust him when he leaves us through the valleys of sorrow and pain and even death.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you sitting here this morning, you know that the vast majority of your life is behind you and if the Lord does not return, you will face death soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know it to be a fact.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the 20-year-old sitting in this room and my children who aren't even
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't feel the front porch of death.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't feel like they're on the front porch of stepping over into eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if the Lord wills it, it could be even closer for them than for our 80-year-olds in the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: but it is hard for us to trust the Lord when we feel and we know that we are on the front porch.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are entering into the valley of either pain or sorrow or death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where Simon Peter found himself in this night surrounded by enemies and fearful that Jesus' mission would fail and that they all were gonna die.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter was a man of action, and men that is commendable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to stop and say that it is commendable to be a man of action.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is far better to be a man of action than to be a man of the couch and the potato chip.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please understand that I am not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those scriptures do not call us to be weak men and women.
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially men, the scriptures call us over and over again to stand up and go out.
[SPEAKER_01]: to go forth in Christ's victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is commendable that Peter was a man of action.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Peter too often acted upon his doubts, upon his fears, upon his insecurities, upon his anger.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's when men of action get in trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: is when they are quick to act, whether they're acting in faith, or they're acting in anger, towards those who come across as their enemy, where the person who's taking away their comfort or bringing pain into their lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about Peter for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once Peter walked on a water by faith,
[SPEAKER_01]: He's walking on water, looking at Jesus, trusting in Jesus, a man of action with his eyes set on Jesus, walked on water.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then he looked around him at his circumstances, the wind and the waves and the danger all around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he took his eyes off Christ and looked around at his circumstances, that became the focus
[SPEAKER_01]: and he began to sink.
[SPEAKER_01]: As long as he had faith in Christ and he was looking on Christ, he was walking on water, but then when he became doubtful of Christ's ability to keep him, to hold him up, he began to sink in the circumstances.
[SPEAKER_01]: The circumstances were about to overwhelm them, because he was looking on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: rather Peter boldly proclaimed to Jesus saying, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just shouts that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just says it, almost without thought.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a man of action, a man of words, a man of faith, will praise the Lord for this confession.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Mormon would not yell this out loud in public, say this boldly in public that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then the very next moment in Matthew were told that Jesus says, blessed are you, Peter,
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to the cross, know that as well, Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Peter do now when he hears that?
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't, he doesn't want Jesus to die.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants him to be the king.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, and so he pulls Jesus aside and in his doubts begins to rub you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the very next part of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man of action who acts on his faith but then also too often acts on his doubts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He now, in this passage this morning, here's Jesus grant the mob permission to take him without a fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are Jesus's words.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let these go.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's revealing what he is willing to happen right then.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's his will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will go with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But let these go.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as Peter hears this, he decides in a moment of doubting action.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're seeing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's filled with doubt and fear, and he acts on those beliefs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those emotions, he decides to jump in front of Jesus, swinging his sword.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take care of this Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got away.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get us out of this mess, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: especially you parents in the room or grandparents who've ever walked somewhere with your child's hand in yours and you're walking down the street and you're going down the side walk just enjoying the beautiful day and then you come to a busy road that you need to cross because the ice cream is at the park on the other side of this road.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all know we have to cross this road.
[SPEAKER_01]: The child knows that the grandparent or the parent knows it and you're holding each other's hands and you come to this road that no one likes to cross but we need to cross it.
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe think about over there by the George Golf Course and you're trying to get across to Heather Lens because at the bike park that's where the deep freezer is full of the ice cream and all the playground and all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a busy road.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are cars constantly coming and going where they're to work or dropping off school, picking off from school, everyone's busy, everyone's in their hurry, everyone's going fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the most pleasant road to cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: you know that there will be a space coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually there will be somebody who either slows down and waves you across or let's just be a natural break in the traffic.
[SPEAKER_01]: There will be a time to cross, which will be the right time to cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know it's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be patient, but you know it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that by God's grace, you will be safe if you're careful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that the time is coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have to imagine for that little five-year-old walking with you,
[SPEAKER_01]: the cars are a lot bigger to that five roll.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're moving a lot faster than them and they cannot see as far as you can both ways down the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: To them it's just a death trap.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you tell the little boy or girl you say don't worry we'll go soon we need to cross but we'll go soon I'll get you across.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you see down the road a gap coming and you say to the
[SPEAKER_01]: our times coming we're gonna cross here in just a minute be ready we're getting ready to go and then as the gap comes and you say alright let's go this is our turn it's our turn to cross you take that step out and you begin to take the next step and the next thing you know you feel a little jerk
[SPEAKER_01]: As that shiled, that five-year-old somehow pulls a full-grown man all the way back and stops him in the middle of the road as he's staring at these oncoming cars.
[SPEAKER_01]: The child was afraid.
[SPEAKER_01]: In that moment of doubt, they acted.
[SPEAKER_01]: And said, no, Daddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what Peter has just done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter has just yanked back the hand of the Lord and said no, Lord, I won't let them take you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Though you have said to me over and over again that this is what must happen in Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter in a moment of doubt is saying no, Daddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not this valley.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't make me come with you down this valley of pain and sorrow and maybe death.
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of you sitting here are doing that right now with the Lord in your lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are tempted to be like Peter and say to the Lord, no Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not that valley, not this risk, not this sorrow, not this pain, not this inconvenience.
[SPEAKER_01]: No Lord, I can't let them go, or I can't let her go, Father, Lord, don't lead me down this valley.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some in this room may even have lived their entire lives up until this point, saying, no Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: No Lord, don't lead me there.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is where Peter finds himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And up until this point in his life, he has very frequently said no Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is a mixture of yeses and noes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a moment before, thank for the me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a moment before, Peter had witnessed the entire mob flying backwards, or stumbling backwards at a simple word from Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now, he attempts to fight their metal sticks with his metal stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: The great I am was revealed for a moment to his sight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He saw the glory of Jesus, and now he picks up his metal stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we see in the Gospel of John is that this night wasn't about fighting with swords and shields.
[SPEAKER_01]: This wasn't even the night for the judgment of God to fall down from heaven on the enemies of his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't this night.
[SPEAKER_01]: This night was about the lion of the tribe of Judah going out to conquer by willingly laying down his life for the salvation of many.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this night was about.
[SPEAKER_01]: And next we see that Christ is both Jesus is both the lion and the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus told us about this laying down his life in John 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told the people I and the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one takes my life from me, no one took his life from him, but I lay it down of my own accord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
[SPEAKER_01]: This charge I have received from my father, Jesus has already told us this and it's disciples this in John 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is how the mighty lion-like shepherd conquers the ravaging beasts of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: by laying down his righteous life like a sacrificial land in our place.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus could not conquer sin and death for his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: by picking up a flaming sword and destroying all sinful rebels from off the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could not pick up that sword that was left at the garden outside the garden of Eden.
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember this in Genesis?
[SPEAKER_01]: How would Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden?
[SPEAKER_01]: A flaming sword went back and forth to kill anyone who dared approach God in the garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: We dared to go back towards the tree of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus could not save his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could not defeat sin and death by picking up that sword and swinging at all forms of evil because then he would have had to turn his sword and kill his sinful, doubting disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he would have had to turn the sword on you and on me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he picked up the sword of God's righteous judgment in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: God picking up a sword and killing all the bad guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard so many people say I wish God would just end all the evil in the world right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're not usually talking about being redeemed by price.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not really in their mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just saying all those bad guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: This wicked people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish God would just kill all wicked people.
[SPEAKER_01]: All sinners right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why doesn't he do it just right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: But God killing all the bad guys on earth, that's not good news for humanity, and that's not good news for you and me if that was all the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we have all once lived in the passions of our flesh, Paul says, carrying out the desires
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all sinned, and we all fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Jesus came the first time as a conquering king who banished unrighteousness from off the earth, then all humanity would have been cast into the lake of fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's all the story was, that is where we would be.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's not the story, it's not the whole story, because God, one of my favorite phrases in all the scripture, but God, being rich in mercy and love, did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's John 317 and Ephesians 2, 4 and 5.
[SPEAKER_01]: The day of the Lord's wrath on rebellious humanity has been promised since the fall in the garden of Eden.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has been promised since then death came over us, and death eternal death was the judgment given at the garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it has been promised, this eternal death has been promised since the fall in the garden of Eden, and that day is coming where no more rebellion will be permitted.
[SPEAKER_01]: in heaven or in earth, and God will wipe the slate clean of all wickedness.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was not this day in the garden of Gassimani.
[SPEAKER_01]: On this day, Jesus would provide a way of escape from the wrath of God that was coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: How would he do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me at verse 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword in its sheath, put it away.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the garden of Eden, the sword was drawn, the flaming sword of death, for all who had approached the tree of life, but in the garden of Geth simity, the sword is sheathed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says, shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?
[SPEAKER_01]: The prophets have all repeatedly spoke of this cup from God, and it was not a cup you wanted to be handed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was not.
[SPEAKER_01]: God said to the prophet Jeremiah, take from my hand, the hand of God, this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you
[SPEAKER_01]: and the messenger bringing the cup filled with God's wrath to the nations who had despised him.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a cup filled with God's wrath and Jeremiah is going to hand this to condemned nations.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in Isaiah, God calls it the cup or the bowl of my wrath to be handed this cup
[SPEAKER_01]: is to be condemned.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to drink the cup is to experience and your entire being, the wrath of the holy and righteous God toward your sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the image of the cup of God being handed to someone and drank by them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are condemned and they are going to experience the wrath of the holy and righteous God toward thercent.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the Apostle John also speaks about this cup filled with God's wrath, which he saw on the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: John hears that if anyone rejects Jesus and follows the course of this world, then he also will drink the wine of God's wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might think, wait a second, there are people who are going to be suffering and tormented in the presence of the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: We must never forget that Jesus is the lion and the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not a cute and cuddly little white lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the wrong image of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the conquering lion who was slaughtered like a lamb for our ransom.
[SPEAKER_01]: So imagine him as the most mighty, powerful, brave and courageous lion you've ever seen in your life or imagine him as a gory, red, blood soaked lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: That should be your images of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: and you cannot forever ignore him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you might have slipped in here today and you know you've been ignoring him all your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might have a reverential respect for him as a religious leader, but you know you've been ignoring him personally.
[SPEAKER_01]: And others sitting here this morning know that in this moment of their life right now,
[SPEAKER_01]: You are ignoring him in this season of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not following him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are saying yes to the course of this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are saying yes to the lust of the eyes to the pride of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can handle this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pride of life in the lust of the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you are actually living in the lust of the flesh right now, and are ignoring Jesus with your life, the way you're living.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we cannot ignore Him forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one will ignore Him forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ignore Him now and you despise Him now,
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you will forever know his wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what John sees in the revelation of Jesus Christ, those suffering under the wrath as the Lamb watches on.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ignore him now, you will forever know his wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you look on him now with repentance and faith,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look on him now, then you can forever know him as your savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: the one who drank the cup of God's wrath in your place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you understand that please understand this?
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a cup from God that will be handed to humanity and each individual human being will drink the wrath of God poured out in full measure and there is no escape except
[SPEAKER_01]: either he drank it for you and you were trusting in him or you will one day drink from that cup for eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the only two outcomes for humanity.
[SPEAKER_01]: So look on him and live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look on the lamb that was slaughtered for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Beginning in verse 12, let's look together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the band of soldiers and their captains and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: They seized him and bound him.
[SPEAKER_01]: First they led him to Ennis for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about these words.
[SPEAKER_01]: They bound his limbs and they led him to the priests like a spotless chosen lamb for the Passover sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're seeing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're seeing the lamb of God being led for slaughter to the priests on the Passover.
[SPEAKER_01]: As Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted.
[SPEAKER_01]: like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it's shears is silent so he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people stricken for the transgression for the sins of my people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus was treated like a sacrificial lamb because of our sin church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us never forget that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was treated this way and he died in this way and was slaughtered in this way because of our individual sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please hear that.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we always feel that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a good thing to feel and know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do not move on from the cross as Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: It stays with us, both our shame and our glory, it is a shame to us that the righteous one had to die for us, it's a shame, it is our shame, and it is also our glory, because through that cross, Christ willingly purchased us, ransomed us, and made us his own.
[SPEAKER_01]: The line of the tribe of Judah was betrayed and led away to slaughter because the people of God have lived as slaves to sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're destined to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we were.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we were born again, slaves to sin and destined to death until we were ransomed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our earthly father was Adam,
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought us all under the cruel reign of death through his sin, and we have all willingly followed Adam into his sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are condemned to race, and a willingly sinful race, both both are true.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if anyone says, God can't judge me for what Adam did, well, just leave that aside and let's go through how Jesus taught the Ten Commandments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just put that aside for
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's put that aside for a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just go through the 10 commandments as Jesus teached it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see if you've willingly rebelled against God in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no man can stand against that judgment.
[SPEAKER_01]: The law condemns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are all sinners willingly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that first man Adam brought us under this cruel reign of death through his sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just as that first man's disobedience enslaved us to sin and death, so the God-man's righteousness freed us and gave us life.
[SPEAKER_01]: As Paul teaches us in Romans 5, saying, as one trespass in the Garden of Eden, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men condemned race,
[SPEAKER_01]: So, one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
[SPEAKER_01]: For as by the one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners.
[SPEAKER_01]: So by the one man's obedience, Jesus, the many will be made righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is how this one
[SPEAKER_01]: pure righteous lamb can offer forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and eternal life to whoever, whatever man, woman of child comes to him, he offers them and he can purchase them and rents of them, the one perfect man, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Prophecy that God gave him, even though he was a wicked man, Caiaphas was right that one man would die for the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He spoke to her words that he knew.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one man would be stricken for the transgression of God's people for our sins, so that whoever believes in him would not have to drink the cup of God's wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: but can have eternal life.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the good news in Christ Jesus, who is both the lion.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can trust in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust in the lion.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is mighty and powerful in the great I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is also the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we should look on Him as the lamb that was slaughtered for our peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: for our iniquities.
[SPEAKER_01]: So trust in the lion and look on the lamb with repentance and faith, because that is how each one of us can start living this eternal kind of life right now, walking with God and how we can have confidence of it in the life to come, eternal life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, thank you for your word,
[SPEAKER_01]: And thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Lamb of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for Him, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that only He could accomplish our righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not a righteousness that is of ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a righteousness that is gifted to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's imparted to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Put to our count.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Lord, for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Father, may there not be a single person in this room who leaves today, not trusting in the lion and looking on the lamb with faith and with repentance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, your children, your people, those who are truly saved, we stumble off the path.
[SPEAKER_01]: We look on the world and we lust after it and these things entice us and tempt us.
[SPEAKER_01]: despise the lion, and no one leave here still cling to the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord may we trust in the lion, when we sinned may we fear him with a holy fear, because he is righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe come to him quickly, running
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe look on the land that was slain, maybe look on him and have life now and forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, Lord, would you do this for this sitting here this morning and Father would you give us courage as men and women of God to go out and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
[SPEAKER_01]: so that our neighbors and our family members and our friends might know how they can have the path that the cup of God's wrath past from them how they can know that Jesus has drank the cup if they will come and faith in repentance follow him Lord would you do this for your glory because it would bring us also great joy to be used for your glory and for the salvation of many
[SPEAKER_01]: Please do this Lord through our church and through our lives and in our families.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus' name, I pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.