Got a praise? Yes, Randy does. I'm well. Amen. I was hurting last week. I had strep throat. Well, you said you were sick, but I didn't know what it was. I had strep throat, and I missed a day and a half of work. Wow. And it's good to be back. Amen. Who else has a praise? I got one. Yeah. I got approved for a home loan. Wow, fantastic. Amen. Looks like we're going to get her. Uh-huh. That's fantastic. I know that's been on your mind and heart for a long time now. Getting a place. That's awesome, man. That's great. Anybody else? Gerald? My boss, on last Monday, gave us a quota to meet. Let's say a quota. If y'all can meet this, y'all can have the week of vacation. Y'all can have, I'll give you a paid week of vacation after Christmas. Whoa. Well, that's still got incentive. We said, if y'all can have it done by noon, December 24th, well, it's done. That built a fire under y'all, didn't it? Oh, it did. Those guys were moving. Yeah, only problem now is he knows how you can do it. That's the problem. You up the expectations. That's the problem. Well, actually it's not because the Word of God says that we ought to serve as unto the Lord all the time anyway. Yeah, that's right. So, you know, there you go. Now you got to see what it looks like. He's had over a 10% increase each year. That's good. That's wonderful. Who else? Finish just at the deadline. Denise? I really thank God for my church family. I'm needing to find a rent house, and everyone who knows has been giving me all these ideas. Oh, I have one in my neighborhood. Oh, I have one in my neighborhood. Go look on this website. And it's just like everybody's helping me and giving me ideas. And I was so thankful for that. Good. Amen. But it's so hard to find. Yeah, they talk about, when you hear about it some on TV, about the rent controls in New York. I don't know anything about that, but apparently it's very expensive to rent a place there, and some of the rent-controlled areas have been cheap for years and years, and apparently those are highly coveted. It would be cheaper than the rent. Yeah, of course. It's like that maintenance. Well, yeah, there's always that, you know, there's that part. There's always stuff always tries to own you. I don't know if you ever noticed that when you're young, and you don't have anything, you want to get some stuff like everybody else does. Give me some stuff. And after you got some of that stuff, and you get some more stuff. And then the stuff You look around after a while and that stuff starts owning you instead of you owning it. It tells you what you got to do, when you got to do it, and when you're going to be there. And you realize, hey, wait a minute. This is not all it's cracked up to be. So who else? Anybody? Yes? Well, Lisa and I had a nice vacation. We did a lot of nothing. Which was the whole point. I almost never read for pleasure. I mean, I read God's Word, but it's, it's, it's not like just reading stories, you know, it's a lot different than what you would call pleasure reading. On vacation, I usually do. That's the only time I do. And so I went through, I don't know, four or five Western novels and Louis L'Amour stuff and you know, stuff that's I did a lot of reading and sitting around in the shade. I don't sit in the sun much. I get plenty of sunburn sitting just out of the sun. So we had a good time. We didn't do hardly anything. You know, didn't swim with the dolphins or chase the whales or go to the zip lines or any of that vacationy stuff. We just rested, which is exactly what we needed to do. Try to catch up a little bit. Anybody else. All right. Well turn your Bibles to John. Chapter 18. And we're going to we're going to. We're going to start talking about the reason Jesus came to this world here this morning. But before we do that I thought being this being Christmas Sunday at Lighthouse. Which will be our. Last Sunday before. the big day, I thought I would give you guys a chance to share a little Christmas testimony. Some of you had homes where there were trees and piles high with presents and all kinds of stuff, and some of you didn't. And, you know, everybody's different when it comes to celebrating Christmas and what it's about. What do you remember about Christmas when you were a kid? You were little. Was it all about Jesus or was it about Santa Claus? Both? Was it about gifts and presents? What was it about? Tell me a Christmas experience. Tell you what, let me ask you a question I'm going to be asking the children later. Can you remember what you got for Christmas? Certain years. Huh? Certain years for Radical. Certain years. Nona, what'd you get for Christmas? I got a basketball and goal. I got a record player. My best memories, I don't know how old I was, was finding things before Christmas. Was finding things? Finding it. The moment I found it, they said, well you may as well go on and get it now. Yeah, Denise, what do you remember? Well, I remember my mom and dad always teaching us about the fun of giving. Even when, as children, we didn't have income of our own, we always managed to make a little extra money here and there to go get something, you know, or make it. And we were just as thrilled to get that because somebody thought through it and gave it to us. Now my kids, they love to go Christmas shopping for other people. It is just so much fun to go with them. I remember one year though, when we were children, we had pulled all our money, we were like junior high, high school, and got my mom a stereo set. She had been wanting one. We had to sneak in by the Christmas tree in the middle of the night and put it together. And so it was hard for us to not want to play with, touch ours. I remember that being a pretty funny experience. Yeah, that sounds like it would be a wonderful memory. Anybody else? What do you remember about Christmas? What's the coolest thing you ever got for Christmas? when you were a kid. Randy? Me and my brother, I think I was 11 or 12. He's three or four years older than me. We were the first guys on the block to get minibikes. Whoa, okay. I woke up about four o'clock and I snuck in there, two minibikes and I'm like, I watched them for two hours and closed my eyes. Nanny bike, that's a big deal. Oh yeah, back in 1970. That's a big deal. Anybody? Cecil, what do you remember getting for Christmas when you were a kid? I remember when I wanted one of them little pedal cars. Yeah? Yeah, I do. Yeah, uh-huh. I got a tricycle instead. You're one wheel short. That was a big gift. And of course, in Pennsylvania, you always wanted a sled so you could go sleigh riding in the car. Yeah. Not a big market for that in Houston. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And as I got older, they got me snow shovels. Yeah. Well, you could ride on a snow shovel down a hill. I figured out how you could do that. Did you ever see a Yankee Jumper? A Yankee Jumper? Yeah. Uh-uh. Well, maybe I did. I just didn't know what it was called. Wooden barrel staves. I mean, them old wooden... Yeah. They'd take one of them staves out of there. And, uh... Like a two-by-four or a four-by-four. About a foot high. You'd nail that to the bottom of it and put a little seat on top. And then you'd sit on it and just... Kind of like a... Legs out and it's one runner. Kind of like a bicycle on a sled runner. Just one runner, you know. Yankee jumper. Man, that sounds cool. You'll start marketing notes. Wes? I guess I just remember the food that we ate a lot. Really didn't do the Thanksgiving thing. We kind of saved it up till Christmas. We would have a life tree, very rarely, but it was usually if we went out and cut it ourselves. As far as gifts, usually I got socks, shoes, pants, shirt, underwear. Rarely did I get any toys. I got a ball one time when I was seven, and I think when I was nine, I got a wooden top. Anybody else? Christmas memories. I have a Christmas memory. I don't usually share, but people here I think will understand. I was probably about eight years old, and when I was young, I came from a, what today they would term as a dysfunctional family, by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah, a lot of that going around. But at the time, there was only three of us siblings, and we lived with my grandmother. My littlest brother, he was about five years old. He was ornery. My lord, that baby was ornery as the day is long. My grandma kept telling him, if you're not good, you ain't gonna get nothing but switches. Christmas morning, we got up, sure enough, big old stack of switches. Big old red ribbon around them, they was laying right there on the coffee table. And this baby was absolutely heartbroken, wrenched to his heart. Of course, me and Hotshot, we just thought that was a funny, we was just kids. We thought that was the funniest thing that ever was. I can remember, My grandma was rolling on the couch, we was rolling on the floor, that was just the funniest thing we ever saw in our life. Then I remember looking over in Chad's little face, just absolutely heartbroke. And when I seen that look on his face, it's like, this is cruel, this ain't funny. And I walked over and I hugged him. And the look on his face, from that day forward, our relationship was never the same. But at the time, it was so funny. That baby was heartbroken. I guess so. With those beautiful switches. Yeah. Nobody ever really believes it's going to be that way. Lumps of coal and switches. Oh, he was heartbroken. My goodness. What'd he do with the switches? I don't remember. He got all kinds of things for Christmas. Yeah. Well, Jesus came and it was probably around this this time of year sometime around this time of year we you know there's also a lot of fuss and an argument and stuff over that but I don't think it it matters all that much as to when compared to the fact that he did he did come in the fullness of time God sent forth his son born of a woman the Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child and now she'll call his name Jesus and he shall save his people from their sins in verse one of chapter eighteen and John. We see the purpose of Jesus coming and I realize that his purpose was covered a lot of different things I mean he taught us by example what love is he showed us what living for God looked like he showed us all kind of things wonderful things But the purpose that Christmas occurred. Is the cross. And that's the part that always gets to me you know when I think about the babe in the manger. I know I know why that babes in the manger I know why he came I know why. He's here. And he's here to die. A baby's all about life. A baby's about future. A baby's about hope. What wonderful things are gonna be and how he's gonna grow up and what he's gonna become and all of those things. That's what a baby's about, but not this one. This one's different. This one's here for the express purpose of dying for us. The fact that he lived 33 years before he did and took all of these prophecies to their fulfillment and showed us more than you could even ever imagine. I love what John said at the end of the book. And you know, the Holy Spirit has inspired the Word of God, which means that there are no exaggerations in the Bible. You realize that? There's nothing exaggerated. Now, some of these things you read about are amazing, miraculous, outlandish even. But, let me read you the last verse of the Gospel of John. It's 21-25. There are also many other things which Jesus did, to which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. Even in the Bible we just got a little glimpse of the life of Jesus those thirty three years that he was here. People speculate on what Jesus did when he was a boy you know there's the in the apocrypha which is a lot of made up stuff that's not Bible Catholics use it as their Bible you'll find the purgatory teaching or the idea behind it in Maccabees you'll find all kinds of different things there you'll find. Jesus raising a bird from the dead as a little boy or something like that stuff that's made up a lot of made up so you could if you started trying to imagine what he might have done you could make up you know you could come up with a lot of fiction about him couldn't you. Enough that the world couldn't hold the books as a matter of fact. But what we do know, we know for sure. Wes? A lot of people say that he began his ministry when he was 30 years old. He actually began his ministry when he was 13 years old. I must be about my father's work when he was lost in the Barrett closet. Hey, where you been? I've been in a temple. Well, you understand, if you want to get Technical and down to the truth on that Jesus began his ministry in a stable. Well, yeah, I Mean there's you know Yeah, I mean he is he is they're completely vulnerable At the mercy of the world basically So we're now at the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus has finished the prayer He has prayed for us. His desire for us is known. There's so much in this the actual Lord's Prayer here in Chapter 17. There's there could never you could never exhaust the sermon potential that's in that chapter. But it says that when Jesus had spoken these words in other words he when he had finished the prayer he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, Cedron, it's the Kidron Valley, it's usually spelled with a K, where there was a garden into the which he entered and his disciples. Now this garden is still there. It's an amazing place, not very big, very small. It's an olive garden, just like an orchard. There is one tree there still today that is dated at over 2,000 years old. That tree was present when everything you're going to read about here took place. Olive trees are not like other trees. They grow backwards. The life is on the outside of the tree instead of on the inside. They're just the old ancient olive trees are are gnarled. I mean, they're all gnarly looking big old amazing looking things, but they're like no other tree. They don't grow like other trees. But at any rate, that Kidron Valley is just a little brook that runs, the eastern gate is of the city, the city wall, and it slopes down. There's a little brook in the bottom, and that's the brook Seidneran or Kidron. And as you go back up, Garden of Gethsemane is right there. You go up a little higher, up onto the hill, the big round hill that's on the other side, that's the Mount of Olives. And it's from the city wall down to the brook, I need to go get accurate measurements on this, but just knowing, basically, it's about less than a football field, probably 50, 60 yards down to the bottom of the brook, and Garden of Gethsemane's 30, 40 yards up from the brook, just right there, the beginning of it, and then the top of the Mount of Olives is probably no more than 200 yards from the brook. So from here to across the street everything that you're reading about here took place in a spot that big does that fit the picture that's in your mind when you go to Israel that's the biggest thing you notice right off that you get these pictures formed in your mind about what happened and where it was and what it looked like and you get there and you see the reality of it I mean it's still there and Everything takes on a whole new dimension you realize that the entire life of Jesus. Took place in geographical locale from here to Conroe. Smaller than. Everything that he did took place in a spot that small. His entire travels the whole entire thing the nation of Israel has. More different climates. and different kinds of land and seas and rivers, then you'll find probably in any country the size of the United States. And yet they're all in a spot that's no bigger than from Galveston to Huntsville and half that wide. It's like no other place on the planet. It's the most unique. amazing wonderful spot on earth there's nothing like Israel nothing I mean there's no place on earth that's anything even close to being like Israel for all my saved life I've heard people tell me you need to go to Israel I thought well I'm reading about it I got you know I'm busy I don't it's a lot of money and I don't have it so when I went the richness of my knowledge of God's Word just about doubled just from having spent 10 days there and seeing these places. Just amazing. But I just wanted to give you that because he left the upper room and went down that pavement down to the little valley and up just a short piece to the Garden of Gethsemane where the olive trees are, into which he entered and his disciples. Now Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with his disciples. It's a really pleasant place. It's shaded, been well-groomed, I suppose, since those days. And he liked to go there. We and Elton had prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane there, somewhere around where Jesus did. And there were no angels showed up or anything different than praying here, really. Although it did give you a kind of a special feeling the fact that you're actually in that place. So. Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. Come a thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Now this is something that's very hard to get your head around. Judas we know from Bible accounts that Judas was. Really not a very nice guy. He was the guy that whined about Mary, quote, wasting the alabaster box of ointment on Jesus. That spikenard is very expensive. It's a natural fragrance. It's probably one of the most wonderful fragrances there is. I'm sure there's some additional qualities to it as well. Very expensive. And she had a pretty good amount of it. And she just broke the box. Now, they call it a box, but it's a clay jar. Just as a thought, does anybody have a speculation on why she broke the box or the jar? Do you think she dropped it or something, or what do you think? I think she wanted to get it all out quicker than just pouring. Probably had a little tiny, kind of like a perfume bottle where you just get tiny bits at a time. I think she broke it so that there's no other reuse could be taken from it, not even from the last of it that was in there. It's anointment, it's not thin liquid. And it's not all gonna come out, so she breaks it so that she can get it all. All for Jesus. All for Jesus. I mean, I don't know that, scripture doesn't say that, but based on her character that we do see, sounds like the kind of thing she would have done to me. Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priest, I mean he betrays the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, which is a lot, maybe even more than the spike nerd would have been worth. And he's going to get the money out of this deal somehow. But then they didn't require him that he just told them where to find him. They required him that he show them, that he take them there. And so he did. I don't know how much he was in favor of all that. When they got there, you've got a band of men, probably, I don't know, 30, 40. You know, we don't really know how big that band was. Who are these soldiers that's with Judas? Are they the Romans? No, who are they? Judas, they're from the chief priest. So that means that these men were the temple guard. They're well trained fighting man. They've got lanterns and torches and weapons. They're coming to take a prisoner. Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth and said unto them whom seek he. And of course Judas stood with them and this account does not tell us the fact that you just walked up and kissed him which he did everything is not in all of the accounts but you know by time you get them all you get it covered pretty well Jesus knowing all things that should come upon him. Now that's a that's a thought right there. A lot of people don't think or don't understand that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. What are some of the things that we see in his life that are there because he knew everything that was going to happen to him. There are several. Can you think of any. From your reading of the scriptures. There are times when he said that I won't always be. Yeah. He told them that he was going to be killed. He told him before John 17 that he was going to be killed and third day rise again. Of course they weren't listening very good. and didn't remember it till later. What about the sweating great drops of blood as he prayed in the garden just before they got there? Do you realize that when Judas came and kissed him, that he kissed a bloody cheek? I mean, he did. Jesus is covered in blood at this point. I mean, I'm sure that he did not get up and take a towel and wipe all blood off after he prayed. Doesn't seem to affect you. Of course, it's pretty dark and lantern and torchlight doesn't really brighten things up too much. So he may not have known, you know, until he kissed him, what was going on. And that's possible, too. But Jesus knows everything that's coming. And he goes forth and he says, whom seek ye? Now there's a prophecy. There's a prophecy that says that of them which gave us me I should lose none. And of course Judas is the exception because the fact that he was never saved in the first place. Judas is a devil from the beginning. So Jesus has the disciples with him. There's also a couple other people there there's a young man that we know of that's They grab him by his clothes and he jumps out of his clothes and runs off naked and gets away. That's one way to get get away when they got you by your shirt. You know do what you got to do. But Jesus first thing he does when they come for him. And this to me is just a marvel. When we see Jesus praying before he goes to the cross who's he praying for. Is he praying for the God will give him you know strength to endure it. Is he praying for mercy. Now he's praying for us. He's not asking anything for himself he's praying for us. Even in the garden when he's he's praying if it be possible let this cup pass for me he's not praying to get out of it. He's showing us by recorded earnestness of heart that he's going to go through with whatever it takes to save us from our sins. And that it's possible. were it not for God's choice. That he could just let us go to hell and avoid the whole thing. You know he could have done that right. You understand God did not. You know there's not some bigger God making God go through with this. And the father is not forcing Jesus to go through with this they are one. He's doing this by choice in this prayer in the garden is showing us that. An amazing concept. So he takes all these there and Jesus asked them, who are you seeking? And he knew what they would say, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said, somebody read in verse five and tell me what Jesus said. He answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus say unto them, I am he. No. OK. Go ahead, Wes. That's true I Am that he is a helper word And that's you know, and and it you know, it does help us understand Jesus identifying himself as the one that they're seeking but he's using He's using a special title here. Where'd that title come from? Where'd the I am title come from? I am who I am. He's a great. I am who I am. Who was it told Moses what to tell Pharaoh? Jesus, that's who that's who was there. It was. It was the same person. It's the I am. And we're talking about Jews. Now he's telling this too. We're talking about the temple guard. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with him. When he said I am. And of course that's in verse six it's italicized again. They went backward and fell to the ground. Now that's kind of like the soldier to this garden to you know when Angel showed up. They turned into a bunch of little girls fainting at the side of. These guys when Jesus said I am and man if you could ever make a movie that would capture this moment. Wouldn't that be a scene to watch? I'd play that one over and I'd rewind that one many times and play it over and over. I'd want to see this again and again. Those guys, when he said that, they found themselves looking up at the stars with having just experienced great force. I mean, flat of their back. And then he asked them again. This is, this to me is like, nobody could write a script like this. Then he asked them again. Who'd you say you're looking for? Can you see the, I mean, this is priceless here. This is amazing. Who are you seeking? I am. Again he asked, whom seek you? And they said, did you, did you, did you, did you? Oh I would love to see this I would have loved to have been a fly on the side of the tree watching this whole thing play out. And they said Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus answered and he says then he does what he did all this for he set this up. He said I've told you that I am. If therefore you seek me. Let these go their way. Oh, yeah. You know that the chief priests wanted them all. They wanted all of them because they were hunting them later. That's why they were hiding in a room after the crucifixion. This is the 12 disciples. Yeah. And and some others. But we don't know. We know one of the others that lad, that young guy. But we don't know how many more. And then he said, OK, you said you're looking for me. If you, therefore, seek me, let these go their way." After what just happened, they're not going to argue. Before, had that not happened, what would they have said? They would have just surrounded them and took the whole bunch. Probably killed Peter, you know. because he's not going out without a fight. He's still not going out without a fight. And he did this because of that that prophecy that saying that had to be fulfilled that he's not going to lose any of them here. Then Simon Peter Peter having a sword drew it. How come Peter had a sword. I mean there were Jesus. You remember. maybe for protection of Jesus. For himself. Well, before they left, they had a little discussion about this. And they said, Lord, here are two swords. He said, that's enough. This is, this had to happen. They, they, the Lord made sure that there was a sword in the group. Because this, I don't know if this was A prophecy that Jesus had talked about that never got recorded like John says at the end of the book. If you recorded it all the world wouldn't hold the books. But this had to happen and there had to be a sword and the Lord made sure that there was one before they went into the garden. Simon Peter is the one he was carrying one obviously. He struck at Malchus. And this now we're down in verse ten actually less we haven't we haven't read all this yet so let's go back to verse three and read down through verse eleven. It says then Judas having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees come a feather with lanterns and torches and weapons. And Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him went forth and said to them whom seek he. The answer is said Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus sayeth unto them I am. And Judas also which betrayed them stood with him as soon as he had said. Unto them I am. They went backward and fell to the ground. Then he asked them again whom seek he. And they said no doubt very nervously. Jesus of Nazareth. And so Jesus says I've told you that I am. I'm he. If therefore you seek me let these go their way. That the saying might be fulfilled of which he spake of them which thou gavest me. Have I lost none. Then Peter, having a sword and drew it, smote the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear, and the servant's name was Malchus. Now, Peter must have been an amazing swordsman to be able to just pick off that ear like that. Suppose that was the case? He was little, John, for sure. How do you cut off a guy's ear with one stroke of a sword without hitting anything else. Like if he'd have come down on him like this to the ear, he would have went into his shoulder as well. But if he was swinging at the neck and the guy did this and skimmed off the ear from the bop, you see that Peter wasn't aiming for the ear, was he? No. I don't know if Peter had ever fought in any kind of battles or had ever taken life or had ever done anything like this before or not. Being a rough fisherman out on, you know, Galilee is not that far from the Samaritans and there's outlaws and all kinds of stuff, but I don't know if Peter had ever done this before, but Peter was definitely going to do it now. Now these soldiers were wearing headgear. But they didn't cover that that ear you know from the top maybe but not up from the bottom like that. Then Jesus said in a Peter put up that sword into the sheath the cup which my father had given me shall I not drink it. Then the band and the captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and led him away to Anna's first for he was father in law to Caiaphas which was the high priest that same year.