All right, if you can turn to John 18, because Jesus has already been arrested. Jesus has initially been brought to the house, apparently, of Annas, who used to be the high priest, and as we saw last week, is sort of the power broker within Jerusalem at this point in time. He established his family essentially, five of his sons as high priests and also his son-in-law Caiaphas was high priest at this point in time in the life of Israel. So we're looking at verses 19 through 27 today. Hear the word of our God. The high priest, and this is again I think referring to Annas, then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them, they know what I said. When he said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand saying, is that how you answer the high priest? And Jesus answered him, if what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. But if what I said is right, why do you strike me? Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself, so they said to him, you also are not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. Let's pray. Father, grant us hearts to understand You and to understand Your Word, to understand ourselves and the greatness of our need for a Savior. Grant us eyes to see and ears to hear of the greatness of Your love for us in Christ Jesus, whom You sent as a propitiation for our sins. And we ask this in His name, Amen. This is a really weird time in my life. That's because I'm currently engaged in two trials. On the one hand, I'm being sued Those of you who don't know, my wife was in an accident two years ago and the other party has decided to sue us for that accident. That's all I'll probably say about that, aside from the fact that we have to make a decision tomorrow about an arbitration hearing. So, on the hand, on the subject of someone who's making accusations and seeking to get money out of me or my insurance company, The other hand, I'm also part of an ecclesiastical trial. I'm the prosecutor. I'm the one who is intended to show the guilt of another party. What has become very obvious to me in the midst of both of these events is that there's another trial going on, and that is the trial in my heart. Because I have to respond to each of these circumstances and how I respond is an indicator of who I am and what I really believe. Am I seeking justice or vengeance? Am I seeking just to make things go away and sort of appease things? My heart is revealed in the midst of this. I'm being squeezed, and what is coming out is what's really in my heart. And so as we think about these trials, the trial of Jesus, let us remember that's not the only trial that's going on. There's also a trial in the heart of Annas, as well as a trial in the heart of Peter. Let's keep that in mind. Our big idea this morning is that Jesus was killed to build his kingdom. I'm going to borrow from last week in the sense that those categories that I mentioned of the hard heart and the weak will, OK? But this is in the context, I think, of the idea of kingdoms. And so the first thing I want us to consider is that the hard-hearted kill to protect their kingdom. As I mentioned, Annas is a power broker, but let us remember that he is not in power by accident. We could think of what Paul says about the, well, actually he quotes Moses from Exodus about Pharaoh. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. And so just as God raised up Pharaoh, and was going to reveal His power not so much in Pharaoh himself, but in how God would overthrow Pharaoh, that God would have mercy upon the people of Israel, but He would harden the heart of Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, even as He reveals His mercy and grace to the people of Israel according to the promise that He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so here we see God has raised up Annas into this position of power. He is going to harden the heart of Annas even as he is about to show mercy to the heart of his people. He's going to reveal His power, so to speak, through the weakness of His Son as this story unfolds. So let's not lose sight of that bigger picture of what's going on. And so he begins to question or interrogate Jesus. It's unknown really to Annas that he too is on trial, that his character is about to be revealed for us. and his questions to Jesus were twofold. They were about his disciples and they were about his teaching. And so what Annas wants to do essentially is to root out Jesus' doctrine and to root out Jesus' disciples. He probably wants to know whom shall I go after next? Whom have you infected with this doctrine of yours? He's going on the offensive. But this, I think, in some ways reveals just how out of touch Annas really was. It gives the impression, anyway, that he hadn't heard Jesus teach at all. Imagine that for a moment. You were formerly the high priest of Israel. You were the one who has worked behind the scenes to get your son-in-law into power as the great high priest of Israel, which means you're colluding to a degree with the Romans in all of this. You are the most powerful religious person in Israel at that point in time, and you haven't decided to go hear Jesus. You haven't gone to the temple during any of the feast days and listened in three years. Jesus was not hiding in a corner when He preached. Jesus was out and in the open when He preached. And in three years, apparently, Annas has not heard Jesus teach at all. Not in the synagogue. Not in the temple. There is some uncertainty, there's some vagueness and ambiguity in what he asks when he talks about his teaching. We're uncertain if he's looking for false teaching, which would fall in line with what we've read from Deuteronomy 13 a little while ago. That's exactly what's going on, I think, because that's exactly what the Sanhedrin charged him with, what they called sorcery. trying to lead people to worship another God. And so, from Annas' perspective, Jesus has performed, perhaps, miracles, but he has performed these to lead people astray. In a sense, they're false miracles to lead them to worship a different God. in a sense, to use the words of Deuteronomy 13, that God is testing the people of Israel to see, you know, this is Anna's perspective, if they will worship false gods. But I think what really is going on is that the test is whether they will follow the true God, Christ. whether or not Annas will hear the voice of the Father, the voice of the God that he already was supposed to know about from the Old Testament in the teaching of Jesus. Remember, Jesus has repeatedly said in the last days of his ministry on earth that he said only that which the Father told him to speak. Is Annas able to hear the voice of the covenant God of Israel in the teaching of Jesus? He's being tested. Will he follow the teaching of Jesus, which is really the teaching of the Lord, or will he follow his own teaching and doctrine? Being heart of heart, He's rejecting the Father's voice by rejecting the voice of Jesus. The second option, so to speak, to make sense of this, is was He looking for seditious teaching? That somehow, in private, Jesus was teaching something else to His disciples that would result in the overthrow of Judaism or the overthrow of the people. because it challenges Rome. Jesus' response is interesting. He doesn't defend Himself. He's asked this question. Why do you ask Me? It's sort of a sneaky question in a sense. Because he then lays out, of course, I taught in the synagogues and I taught in the temples. Everyone's heard what I've said. There's nothing going on here. But it's pointing out that Annas is violating the law in how he's conducting the trial. This is not an informal sit-down. Jesus... is bound. Jesus has been arrested. This is not Anna sending a little note to Jesus. You know, I'm curious about you, but I can't get out to hear you teach at the synagogue or the temple. Why don't you come by my place and let's have a chat? This is not what it is. He's bound. And, according to the rules, Okay? The witnesses against him must come first. There have been no charges, no allegations made against Jesus, and yet he's being called to defend himself. Annas is violating the procedure in this trial. He makes you think that he's pursuing justice, but he is pursuing it unjustly. It is then that one of the officers struck Jesus with his hand. It could mean that he slapped him. It could mean that he boxed his ears. But either way, he acts. And he acts unjustly. Jesus notes to him that the proper course of action is that if Jesus spoke wrongly, that a charge should be made. You don't just beat the prisoner. And so, there's another injustice. And we see this as well in the trial that we see of Paul later on in the book of Acts that we had read this morning. He too is struck unjustly. And it reveals the hardness of the heart of those who have them both under trial. We get to the crux of this. Annas, not getting any real answers, then sent him bound to Caiaphas. In other words, he is sending Jesus to die. He is sending Jesus to be destroyed in order to, from his perspective, save Israel from Rome as well as to preserve his own personal power. We cannot remove that from the equation because if Rome rises up and puts Israel down, who loses his power and influence? Annas. Annas, who has been in league with Rome to at least some degree, is seeking to maintain his privilege and to maintain his power. And so he has a vested interest in preserving that, although he does not yet understand it is at the expense of the kingdom of God. He does not grasp, just as the soldier who struck Jesus did not grasp, that they are now in opposition to God's kingdom and God's Messiah. But they are. People often are at war with God and don't realize they're at war with God. They think they're doing okay. They think they're doing alright. They think their actions are just. They think they have proper cause for that which they do. But in reality, they don't. And they're being unjust. When our kingdoms are threatened, the pride and the fear that already exists in our hearts Because we're being squeezed, that's what's going to come out. That pride and that fear. And what that pride and fear will drive us to do oftentimes is to hurt other people. To fight. To demand. To hate. To rage. We're like a child who doesn't get his Legos. This Friday night, a couple of the guys came over to my house and we watched It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which is one of the funniest movies that I have watched. I love that movie. Loved it for years. And one of the things that kind of dawned on me as I was watching it for the first time in a while is if you watch the patterns of statements, there are a few things that emerge repeatedly throughout the film. One of which, of course, went flying right out there. OK? The 350 G's is another phrase that pops up often, as well as the big W. OK? Because the money was, the 350 G's was buried under a big W. One of the other phrases that I was amazed at how many times it came up was, I'm going to kill you. Because someone was threatening their kingdom. Someone was threatening their share, their fair share in the money from that robbery 15 years earlier. I'm gonna kill you. The rage emerges when we feel threatened and we want to do bodily damage to other people because they threaten our kingdom. Can't help but think of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory either. When, can't remember her name, let me get her name right, Verruca salt. the little girl whose father was so very rich. She wanted the golden geese, well, the geese that laid the golden eggs. And there's her little song and dance about how she wants the world and she wants it now. And there was the little egg tester. Good, bad. And so every egg that the geese laid came down on this. And if it was good, then it was taken by the oompa loompas and polished up and sold. But if it was bad, The bottom opened up and the egg was sent to the furnace. At the end of her little song, Varunka got up on the scales. Bad egg. To the fires. What's in our hearts is a reflection of who we are. And so trials reveal the kingdom that we live for, the one we will protect oftentimes by harming others. Secondly, let us consider that the weak-willed lie to protect their kingdom. The scene shifts to Peter, who is also on trial, even though not formally. He's on trial in the eyes of God. He doesn't know it, but Jesus warned him that Satan had asked to sift him. And this is the process by which Satan is sifting him. It was a cold night. He's already denied Jesus one time. Okay, when he entered the gates and the slave girl challenged him. Okay, and so he goes on this cold night to the coal fire. Okay, so it's a fire pit, but it's not like with logs on it and high flames that you can see by. It's more like the dim glow of the coal burning in it, producing the heat, but not a whole lot of light. And so it's difficult to see the person, you know, kind of standing on the other side of this fire pit. Okay. It's the glow. But nonetheless, Peter is recognized. We see it says, they. Now what's interesting is when you look at the other Gospel accounts, Matthew and Mark have a woman coming forward, but Luke has a man coming forward. And what John does is he ties these two together in a sense of saying that whichever one came first, others joined. So before Peter has a chance to respond to the allegations, we have a group of people who are essentially saying to Peter, yeah, aren't you one of his disciples too? Now, Matthew fills this out to a greater degree than John does in that Peter not only says no, but Peter says no with an oath. I swear to you on." He is backing up his claim with the use of an oath. You know, stick a needle in my eye, that whole thing. He's doing that, except more formally in the words of the Jewish people of that particular day. He denies it. Okay? Strike. two, the umpire would say, if there were one. He's still by the fire. You'd think he might retreat from this fire, but that might point out the fact that he feels a little guilty about all of this. And John notes something that the others don't, that the servant who approaches him next is a relative of the man whose ear he cut. This person is a relative of Malchus. Okay, Malchus, who Jesus healed, but still, it has to be kind of a rather, sticks to the mind, shall we say, such an event. And this person was also there. Weren't you at the garden too? Didn't I see you in the garden with Jesus? So it's not just, aren't you His disciple, but didn't I see you at the garden? The stakes are a little bit higher. And once again, Peter denies it. Matthew notes that he does so not just with an oath, but this time he calls a curse down upon himself. Peter keeps lying because of fear. because of what might happen to him if he says the truth. We often lie out of fear. I remember one of the great lies I told when I was a child. And I'd gone to a friend, I was with a friend, we went to his neighbor's house, and their little tiny dog ran out when we rang the doorbell. And I backed up because of the dog, because I didn't know this dog, and I wasn't sure if I should trust this dog. And there was one of those little plastic pools in the driveway filled with water, which is kind of odd, because it was not a hot day. And nonetheless, I fell backwards into the pool. When arriving home in my bespotted sort of way, drenched, my mother asked me, what happened to you? And instead of saying, the dog chased me, I said, Dennis pushed me. Why a child would lie about that? There was some fear about saving face. And instead of wanting to be afraid of a dog, I wanted rather to be pushed in by my friend. Peter is saving his kingdom, he thinks, out of his fear. Let's think about Peter for a second, though. Peter, remember, in chapter 13, right after the foot washing and all of that, and the declaration that one of them is going to betray him, Peter says, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Here's his opportunity. But what else about Peter? Peter is the one who made the great confession in Matthew 16. You are the Christ. You are the Son of God. That's the guy. And Jesus didn't say, well done for you. High fiver. He said that the Father revealed this to you. The Father revealed the true identity of Jesus to Peter. Not only that, but Peter along with James and John were the only three that were taken to the top of the mountain with Jesus for His transfiguration where He sat and talked with Elijah and Moses. Where they saw the glory of Jesus before His death. Peter! Peter was there. He saw all of this. And yet we see in the face of a servant, the rock crumbles. He falls to pieces. We see that he's really weak-willed and that he lied to save his own life to protect his own little kingdom. And he may have justified this by saying, well, you know, if Jesus died, I can continue to teach what Jesus taught. Maybe that was going on in his mind. I don't know. But I'm reminded of some other people in the history of Israel who lied to save their skin. Abraham. Isaac. Abraham did it twice. but going to another group of people, entering to a city because of a famine. First time it was in Egypt, and the second time later was gonna be the city of Limelech and Canaan, but both times going, they might hurt me because my wife is beautiful. Therefore, honey, tell them you're my sister. Not trusting God to preserve, but coming up with a lie to save his skin. That is what we see Peter doing here. He's not trusting in God to deliver, but instead, he's saving his sin through sin. Luke adds to this account something that John leaves out by mentioning that he and Jesus' eyes meet. The rooster crows and their eyes have locked. We're not sure exactly what Peter sees there, but he falls to pieces with guilt. He knows what he has done. Judas was in a similar situation, and his solution was to take his life. Sometimes that sounds radical to us, but just this past week, I heard of some interviews by Rhoda Rousey. For those of you who don't know, she's a mixed martial arts fighter, and she was the champion of her division, and this girl from Texas cleaned her clock. She was the Mike Tyson of you know, the women in mixed martial arts, and she lost. And her response to that was, I wanted to die. Because I can't imagine life apart from being the champion. That was her kingdom. She couldn't imagine that kingdom being taken away from her. And when it was, she didn't want to exist anymore because her identity was wrapped up in her kingdom. I'm sure Peter felt much the same way. His identity has just been shaken to the core. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, that we are not stronger than Peter. Let's not sit in judgment on Him, but we often act out of fear in order to save our own kingdom too. Let's not minimize the seriousness of what Peter has done, because let us hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 10. So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. And I'll stop there for a second. Roy Orbison would often refer to this text. as the reason why he told people about Jesus. He's home now, I think. But the way he expressed it made it sound almost like salvation by evangelism. That's not the point. You're not saved because you tell people about Jesus. You tell people about Jesus because you're saved. Now here's where I'm going with this. Whoever denies me before men I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven." Do you think that came to Peter's mind at that moment? That he thought he was completely destroyed? That all hope was lost in what he did? Trials reveal the kingdom that we will lie for because we can't live without them. Let's get to the good news. We need the good news. And that is that Jesus was killed so that we can enter his kingdom. Jesus was faced with difficult decisions as he stood before Annas. Remember, he can call down legions of angels. He could have Annas killed right then and there. Because Annas was a sinner. Annas was corrupt. And he didn't. Jesus, I'm sure, was tempted to deny His identity as the Son of God and the Messiah. He would have been tempted, perhaps, to deny His doctrine, to deny His disciples in order to save His own life. Was He going to trust in the goodness and power and promise of the Father, or was He going to fear finite men? Jesus doesn't back down. He presses the issue of injustice and innocence. He questions the legality of the trial by saying, why do you ask me? Where are my accusers? He doesn't back down when he's slapped. He does not cower, but neither does he retaliate. but He speaks to the injustice. If I've done wrong, bear witness to what I've said." And so in a sense, we have here, I think, a fulfillment of what we find in the prophecy of Micah 5. Verse 1, Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops. Siege is laid against us. With a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. And the very next verse talks about the one who's going to come on the foal of a donkey out of Bethlehem. We see from Proverbs 28.1, the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. And so Jesus is not cowering. He's bold. He's speaking the truth. He's not threatening people. Okay? And so he's fulfilling what he taught people in Matthew 5, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him also the other. Okay? He's fulfilling that, but that does not mean that you have to never speak to the injustice that's being perpetrated. And he's doing so righteously. Not, I'm going to get you, which would have been true, but he's not doing that. He's not making threats, but he's pointing out the injustice. And so we see in all of this that Jesus isn't accidentally killed for his kingdom. He's not like a king, like we saw oftentimes in the Old Testament, who happens to be near the battle site and then an arrow comes from out of nowhere and kills him, okay? He's not someone who died because he caught a disease. He is choosing to be executed on behalf of his people. That's what's going on. He is embracing his death, not just for justice, the fact of being right, but for the existence and furtherance of his kingdom. He dies in order to provide redemption, the forgiveness of sin, so that sinners like you and I, we can enter into, though we're bad eggs. We see this in Colossians 1. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so we see that Jesus died to restore Peter, to make Peter a son, and this is true of all who trust in Christ. that though we betray Him, He will not betray us. Though we may deny Him at times, He will not deny us." I love how Sproul communicates this. He gave Himself for a people who have it in them to betray Him. People like you and me. However, He will never betray those on whom He sets His love, but He will love them faithfully for all time." And so while if we're put on the scale, it should go, bad egg, He pardons us and secures us and keeps us so that we don't face the justice we deserve. He went down the chute for us so that we don't have to go down the chute. But that's not all. this Peter is not just restored. We see that in Acts 2, this Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus poured out upon His people, in order that He might boldly make Jesus known as the Savior, the One who cowered before the servants is now standing up before anyone and everyone and boldly proclaiming that Christ is Messiah, the Son of God slain for sinners. And he is going to die for Jesus and for the kingdom many decades later. So not only did Jesus restore him, but Jesus transformed him into such a man that was faithful even to the end. And that's what he does with us. He does not simply pardon us, but He also purifies us. So trials, legal or not, reveal much about who we are and what we live for. Our fears rise to the surface. We experience that fight-or-flight response, and that reveals a profound lack of trust in God's goodness, His love and mercy, Jesus stood firm under trial for us. He did not kill to keep a kingdom. He did not lie to keep a kingdom, but He laid down His life to gain a kingdom. He laid down His life to fill it with people like us, to remake us as a people like Him. And so, which kingdom has more of your heart? Which kingdom captivates your attention, monopolizes your time? Your kingdom or His kingdom? Let's pray. Father, we... recognize that while we are redeemed, we are not yet fully made righteous. And so, we do experience that struggle between the flesh and the Spirit. And Father, one way it shows up in our hearts is that we live for two kingdoms. They seem to war in our hearts. And sometimes, by the power of the Spirit, yours prevails. And sometimes we seek our own. Have mercy on us. I thank you that you have sent your Son to do that very thing. Strengthen us in the power of the Spirit, that we would be striving for your kingdom, living and dying and loving for Your kingdom and not our own. Father, that's not something that's done by us and by the power of the Spirit. It's something that You have to do. You have to work in us. And so I ask that You would do that. In Jesus' name, Amen.