If you would, join me in John 18. John chapter 18. And we're gonna read the text, but before we do that, let's just look to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your mercy to us, that your Son, coming to his own, coming into his creation, he was not received. Battered, he was bruised, he was arrested. We see that in the text before us today. And in one sense, all of us here in this room were party to it, although not there physically. And yet in love and mercy, you have redeemed us and you are our living hope. Father, we don't deserve that grace in any way. But we thank you. Father, we pray as we peer into your holy word this morning, as we open the story in front of us and we look at the plot, by evil men and imposters to have your son crucified. As we begin to look at this, as we begin to tear it apart, I pray that in the details of the story, your Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts individually on some point, on some issue, and that you would make us more like your son. I pray that if there's somebody here today that has never entrusted themselves to you and been born again, that Father, here in the study of your word, they would begin to see their need, and they would begin to see the opportunity that you have put in front of them to be adopted into your family, and that your Holy Spirit would draw them. Bless us in your word today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Look at John chapter 18. We just finished verses one to 11 in the narrative where we were looking at the arrest. And if you'll remember, if you'll go back with me in your mind the last week when we looked at the arrest of Jesus and we see him being bound and taken away, we nevertheless see Jesus in complete control of the situation. So much so that when these individuals come and they don't know where Jesus is in the crowd initially because it's dark, all they have is torches and lanterns. Who are you looking for? Jesus of Nazareth. It's me. Boom, they all hit the ground. They are knocked flat by his declaration of himself as the Son of God. Can you imagine shaking themselves up? They get up off the ground. Jesus again says, who are you looking for? Jesus of Nazareth. Well, here I am. Take me. But let these go. Peter tries to knock the head off a man named Malchus, missing with his machete, he takes off his ear. Jesus does his last recorded earthly miracle of healing, picking up an ear off the ground and putting it back on an enemy's face, on his head. Showing us there again, the heart of our Savior. that even when he is being arrested, even when enemies are coming against him, he shows them tremendous tenderness and mercy. And he heals a man who was injured by one of his disciples. The text continues. We're gonna read kind of a lengthy section. I don't think we are going to finish studying this definitively today. We'll get as far as we can. As I go, I'm gonna be explaining some things. We'll come back to it as we go through the message, but I will throw in some explanation, and I'm also going to seed some questions that I want you to begin to think about as you're reading this text. Because if you're like me, you have your devotions in the morning, or maybe right before you go to bed, and you're reading through the scripture, and you've read it before, And maybe you're not noticing things as closely as you would if you were reading when you're really alert and you really got some coffee in you. So as we read it this morning, there's some things here that even as I studied it this week more definitively, what in the world is that? What does that even mean? And I hope to begin to get you thinking as we read the text and we'll try to answer some of those questions as we go through the study this morning. So the band of soldiers and their captain, that's the Romans, the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and they bound him. These aren't nice handcuffs. This is probably chains and shackles. They first lead him to the home of a man named Annas, for he is the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. We're gonna talk about the relationship between Annas and Caiaphas. And I also want you to notice it says here, that year. He was high priest that year. Why does it say that? I thought when you read the Old Testament, the high priest was a lifetime appointment that was hereditary. What's going on here that Caiaphas is only looked at as being high priest that year. So what does that mean? Also, put into your thinking cap, that from the Garden of Gethsemane to where Jesus is led for his first trial is probably about six-tenths of a mile. Not a tremendous distance, but some distance to be walking bound. Probably taking maybe 30 minutes to get there. Excavations have unearthed this mansion of the high priest. It's no little thing. Remember, he is the top dog in Israel during this day. He is living in a palace that is roughly 12,000 square feet. It has an internal courtyard that is surrounded by rooms. It is into that courtyard that we will see Peter and John going. It's about three stories. It has a bath built into the house so that the high priest didn't have to go and publicly bathe or he didn't have to go and bathe with other sinners and thus get defiled. It is a palatial place and it was for those who were very wealthy. It is not easily accessed by just any Joe Blow on the street. it's important you put that in your mind as well. They lead him to Canaanus, where he's the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who in chapter 11, verse 50, had advised, which we already studied, he advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. In that situation, if you'll remember, put on your thinking cap, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead Lazarus was in the tomb for four days. Jesus calls him out Lazarus come forth Many people are beginning to believe in Jesus because of the testimony of Lazarus The leadership of Israel says we can't put up with this anymore. I If we let this guy continue to run rampant and do what he is doing, the Romans, this is what they say, it's important to think about the link here in the trials as we study this. The leadership of Israel, the Sanhedrin says, if we let this guy keep doing what he's doing, the Romans are going to come and they are going to take away our position of power. And so they see Jesus as a direct affront and threat to their power. And they say, this guy gotta go. Caiaphas says, and the Holy Spirit tells us in chapter 11, it is a word of prophecy by an ungodly man. But nevertheless, what he said was true. It is expedient. that one man would die and the whole nation is not destroyed. Jesus gotta go. Simon Peter is following Jesus. It tells us in the synoptics he is following from afar. Let's not knock Peter too hard. Put yourself in his shoes. You just took a guy's ear off. Those guys are probably not too thrilled with you. Jesus has said, leave him alone, and he'd knocked them flat to make sure they knew they better leave him alone. But Peter's afraid, but he's following. And I want you to think about that. Peter is following. Peter's gonna botch it. Peter's gonna sin. But Peter was still following Jesus. My friend, that is rich for each of us. When we look at ourselves and our propensity to fall, Peter was following. We're followers of Jesus. Simon Peter is following Jesus and so did another disciple. Since the disciple was known to the high priest, please notice that phrase. I'd read it before. It didn't mean much to me before, but this time it meant a lot. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. I had to immediately ask myself, how did an obscure fisherman like John from Galilee, how did he know the high priest well enough that when he gets to the door, they let him in. I mean, how well do you know Donald Trump? I mean, it'd be like getting access to the White House. This is not some place that you just walk in the door just because it's you. There are details that we don't know from the text. There are details that we don't know because we were not there, but it is amazing to me to think that Zebedee, who was a fisherman in Galilee, He and his children, James and John, are well known enough that the high priest knew them, and when John shows up at his door with Jesus, he just walks right on in and nobody questions it. He just has access to this palace of the high priest. He even has enough confidence in his presence there that you'll see in the text, he sends somebody out to get Peter. And Peter's able to come in because of John. So what is that? You know what? There's tons of guesses. AI will even give you a few. There's tons of guesses, but the reality is nobody really knows, because the Holy Spirit doesn't tell us. But it's an amazing thing to think about this reality. The other thing, I guess I'll just bring it up now, but in the book of Acts, in chapter four, these two guys, Peter and John, get called into the home of the high priest again. And in Acts chapter four, they've just healed a guy at the temple gate. It was lame. And then everybody's just blowing up the name of Jesus. Peter and John are preaching in the name of Jesus and they get called into the high priest's house. And the high priest tells them, hey boys, if you don't shut up, you're in trouble. You remember what Peter and John says? Think about the marked difference in the confidence of Peter between Acts 4 and John 18. Because what does Peter say? Well, I don't care what you think. We're going to do what God told us to do, because it's better to obey God than it is to obey man. And he won't deny Jesus. Same high priest, a couple of months apart. Let's go on. So Peter is standing outside the door in verse 16. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out, spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. The servant girl who was at the door, by the way, she's not the only girl at the door. I guarantee there's some guards there. But she's a girl at the door. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? No, I'm not. Number one. Now the servants and the officers had made a charcoal fire. It was cold. So this is like April, it's Jerusalem. Average temperature in Jerusalem in April is like in the 40s. Now that's warm to us. That's cold to them. As they were standing and warming themselves, and they were standing and warming themselves, Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. I'm not gonna beat up on Peter, because he was standing at a charcoal fire when he was cold. I've heard a lot of people beat up on him for being there. But you know what, he was there. It's like beating up on Peter because he began to sink when he was walking on water because he took his eyes off Jesus. I mean, he's there. The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I've always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why are you asking me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand and said, is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him, if what I said is wrong, then bear witness about what is wrong. But if what I said is true, then why did you hit me? Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Notice verse 19. The high priest questioned Jesus. In verse 24, it tells us that Caiaphas is the high priest. How do you have two high priests? We'll talk about that in a minute. 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 he said, I am not. Number two. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, did I not see you in the garden with him? Didn't I see you there? Pretty pointed question. Number three. and at once a rooster crowed. And it tells us in the synoptics that Peter went out and he wept. He wept bitterly. Because Jesus had prophesied to him that very night When Peter said, though everybody else denies you, though everybody else is scattered from you, I would lay down my life for you. And Jesus said, no, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And Peter did. And the Lord's timing is perfect. Because the rooster crows. Now as we consider the text, I want us just to run through some things kind of quickly. The first thing I want you to notice is in 1 Corinthians chapter two. Paul is talking about the meaning of the cross and the preaching of the cross. And why the preaching of the cross is central to the ministry of the church. And in that section, the Apostle Paul says this, yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom. Although it's not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age. Those guys are all doomed to pass away. But we are imparting a secret and a hidden wisdom of God. A wisdom from God that he says in the next verses, I cannot see and ear cannot hear. but it is taught by the Holy Spirit, which God decreed before the ages began. And he did it, he decreed this to bring us to glory, for our glory, for his glory for sure, but to bring us to glory. And then he makes a statement, none of the rulers of this age got it. None of these guys got it. Annas didn't get it. Caiaphas didn't get it. None of the officers who arrested Jesus, the poor guy that strikes Jesus on the face when he says the truth, he didn't get it. None of the rulers of this gate got it. Because if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory. They didn't get it. They didn't understand it. What didn't they understand? Let's think about it as we look at the text this morning. Now, if you consider the plot of the chapter, what we saw last week was in the first 11 verses. In the first 11 verses, we see Jesus being arrested. We see what happens in the garden. It is condensed, it is not given to us in John, everything that was in the synoptics. Remember Jesus' prayer. We already studied that. We then see, man alive. We then see what we read today, the first trial of Jesus. It is a Jewish trial. Remember last week we talked about the interplay between Rome and Israel during this period. We see a Jewish trial, we see a charge being brought against Jesus, and the charge that is brought against Jesus is blasphemy. They come up with concocted witnesses that we will see in the synoptics. The concocted witnesses cannot agree among themselves, it tells us in the text, But the one thing that they come up with is that Jesus had said, if you destroy this temple, I will raise it up in three days. They don't understand what Jesus means by what he said. In reference to that, the high priest asked Jesus, are you the Messiah? Jesus says, it is as you say. The high priest tears his garments. He says, what further need do we have of testimony? He is guilty of blasphemy. Remember, in the Torah, blasphemy against God Almighty, Jehovah God, is a capital crime. It could get you killed. So that is the charge that the Jews bring against Jesus. The next thing we see is Peter's denial. I may not be able to use my finger. My pen, for some reason, is not working. I don't know what's going on with my pen. I have another computer. It's a new one. And I am having a terrible time learning the operating system. So it's been like on my desk for three months while I'm trying to learn it. So I'm still using my old one. One of these days, I will get really brave and bring it. Peter's denial, we're gonna talk about that this morning. That is interspersed in the narrative that we are studying. We then see trial number two. We'll study it next week, and it is his Roman trial. Now something happens that is completely against the law of Israel. Blasphemy is not a capital crime among the Romans. They change the charges and they bring a new charge against Jesus and they say this man is guilty of treason. He is making himself out to be a king. So the charge is changed. That is totally against the law. They do it anyway. If you'll remember from our study last week, the Jews in this period of time have no privilege of execution. taken away from them by Rome. They are able to try lesser crimes, they are not able to try capital crimes. If they want Jesus to be killed, the Romans have to do it. In order for them to do it, they must find him guilty of a capital crime in Rome. The one they bring against him is he is guilty of treason. Now here's the timeline. This is what's happening on this night, and I think it's related to Peter's denial, so I wanna bring it up real quickly. We're gonna guess that Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane by 11 or 1130 on the night of the Passover. He's left the upper room. They've walked down into the Kidron Valley where the Garden of Gethsemane is and Jesus prays there. Maybe it's an hour, hour and a half. We don't know exact. Gospels don't give us the exact times. But let's say Jesus leaves the upper room around 11, after teaching, after celebrating the Passover, they work their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. I'm sure those disciples by then are tired, they're looking forward to getting some rest, as we know, because they all fall asleep, but Jesus goes right to prayer. Somewhere around one, Maybe a little bit later than that, officers come and arrest Jesus. He is then taken probably a 30 minute walk to the home, the high priest. He has a trial. It is in the middle of the night. It is there again, totally illegal. The way the judicial system worked in Jesus's day, A capital case had to last longer than one day, and it had to be done during the day. It couldn't last just a couple of hours. The sentence had to be brought against him the day following his actually being found guilty of the crime. There are many things that the Jews do that are completely outside of jurisprudence during the day of Jesus in order to get him executed. This is his first trial. Somewhere between five and nine, we have a second trial. Somewhere along the way in that time, a rooster crows. By the way, I hope you know, Roosters don't crow only in the morning. Did you know that? The miracle is not that the rooster crowed. My wife's kept chickens for 40 years almost. We've been married like 37, I guess. We've had chickens the whole time, and we've had a lot of roosters. Some of them are sorry excuses for roosters. We've had some good ones. We've got one right now. His name is Tabasco. He's a great rooster, he's a little guinea rooster. I love the guy, I'm gonna hate it when he dies. Man, every morning he wakes me up. But, you know, noon, one o'clock, whatever, he'll be out there crowing. Roosters crow. It's not just the fact that the rooster crowed. It's the timing of it. It's that timing. Now some people, I won't go into the whole thing, but some people try to say, well, the Jews didn't keep chickens at the time. You know what? Archeologists have found many occasions in writings and other things and archeological evidence of Jews during this day keeping chickens. Some people try to say because of ritual uncleanness, I know chickens are pretty unclean, but because of ritual uncleanness, Jews didn't keep chickens. That's not true. They did. But anyway, so the rooster crows. Let's think about the players. This is kind of getting towards the meat of the message, so stick with me. In this plot, there are different people involved. These people play heavily into the plot to see Jesus crucified. And I wanna consider these players this morning. I know we're not gonna get through them all. The first ones that I want to consider are the powerful elites. And these guys are simply protecting their own power. Some of them are Jewish authorities, and then we'll see Pilate. They are the powerful elites. We're going to also talk about the pawns. These are the ordinary people that just get caught up in the drama. These are guys like arresting officers and soldiers who just get told, go get Jesus. What do you do? You're a soldier. You're told to go do something by powerful elites. What do you do? Arresting officers and soldiers. And then we see crowds of common people who are manipulated by powerful elites to do their will and to cry out, crucify him, crucify him. These are the pawns. And then we see the friends of the Lord. These are kind of the players that all surround the central figure, and that is Jesus. When we consider this, and we talk about the powerful elites who are protecting their own kingdoms, we think about the high priest first of all. He's mentioned in the text. There's a guy named Annas, and there's a guy named Caiaphas. What's the interplay here? What's going on? Now, if you go back with me in your thinking and you go back into the Old Testament in the book of Exodus, the high priesthood was laid out to come from the tribe of Levi of the family of Aaron. Do you remember that? Aaron is the first high priest. When it was originally set up, it was a lifetime appointment, kind of like a Supreme Court judge, but it's hereditary. And that guy who is the high priest is going to serve as high priest unless he becomes disqualified by some physical incapacity. It doesn't really say in the text of the Old Testament that if he's guilty of a certain sin, he would be removed. But it does say if he is guilty, or not guilty, but if he gets a physical ailment, he would be. The presumption is, if he was guilty of a big enough sin, God would remove him. Because God did remove some of them. We know that from the history in the Old Testament. So it is a lifetime appointment, it is hereditary, unless the guy is disqualified because of some physical defect. So what's changed? When Rome comes in, the whole system is changed. and it becomes a political appointment by the Roman official who oversees Palestine. Because of that, many of them, you can look at the records in Judaism, they kept tremendous records, many of them lasted no longer than a year. So the whole system is turned on its head, And it is all based on bribes and corruption. The whole system has changed. They were Sadducees. You remember the different groups in Israel at the time. There were Pharisees, there were Sadducees. The Sadducees are politically and religiously extremely liberal. And these guys are being appointed to be high priests. Yes, they are from the tribe of Levi. Yes, they are from the family of Aaron, but it is no longer a hereditary thing. It is appointment by Rome. Now, the link between Annas and Caiaphas. Annas is the father-in-law of Caiaphas. He was deposed by Rome after serving for almost 15 years. So he served a long time, but he was deposed because he was continually disregarding Roman directives about punishment of capital crimes. So he would disregard it, they would execute, and then he would get in trouble. Finally, the Romans get tired of it, and the one that gets appointed is his son-in-law, whose name is Caiaphas. However, Annas is the power broker. He's behind the scenes. It's like you all know this, Biden wasn't president. He only thought he was on certain days. Right, it was somebody like Obama. It's other people. They're behind the scenes calling the shots. Caiaphas got the title, Annas had the power. That is really exemplified by the reality that who did they lead him to first? Annas. So he is the real power behind the scenes. He holds a dynastic grip on power since 6 AD, and he does so up into the 40s. So it's a long period of time that Annas is the guy. Caiaphas is kind of his guy. Let's talk about the pawns. This one kind of really got into my heart this week as I thought about it, as I studied about it. These are just, I mean, this is the story of human existence. These are the guys that are the cannon fodder in Ukraine. Powerful elites. Black Rock wants their land, they want the Ukrainian farmland, you know, all the different shenanigans that are going on behind the scenes with Putin and others and the Europeans. And you're just the pawn. And you just go and die. Been reading this book about the Mossad. Intriguing. The Mossad really begins to come into prominence after the Second World War because the Mossad are really the guys who were going around rounding up the Nazis and bringing them to justice. But how many guys who became Nazi war criminals Just did it because they didn't know what else to do. And some powerful elite is saying, you do this because we got your address. We know who your kids are. You take care of the Jews or we take care of you. This is the story of human existence. Ordinary people. whose lives are completely upended and destroyed by the elites. Simply doing what they're told, manipulated by power to do their will, and they all hide their face, don't they? They're the ones who have the flayed conscience. They're the one who pay the consequences in real life. So Jesus says, sitting on the side of the road, looking down into Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together like a hen, a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. They will come against you. and they will erect seed works against you and they will kill you because of what you do to me. They pay the price. These are the same people who in Acts chapter two hear Peter preach. And he says, you by lawless hands took the Holy One and you killed him. And these people are the ones who say, what do we do? And what did Peter say? Repent and believe the gospel. Maybe you're one of those people who you have a flayed conscience because you participated in some thing along your life story that powerful elites told you to do. What do you do? Believe the gospel. Repent. We have a merciful God who loves people like Malchus who came to get him. He loves the pawns. He loves us. The next thing we see are the friends. We lose track of the nine, they're scattered like sheep. We don't see them again until the closing act, right? They're just gone. We see Judas, what happens to him? He takes the money back to the high priest and he throws it at their feet, and he goes out and he does what? Hangs himself. Hangs himself. We see John. John is following Jesus and he goes into the high priest's home. And he's with Jesus. He even goes to the cross. You see Peter, he's following, he's afraid, he goes in, but he denies three times he even knows Jesus. And I have to ask myself, and I had to ask myself this week, what's the difference between John and Peter? What is the difference? Because when I get put in that situation, I want to be John, not Peter. Right? Sad to say, more times than not, I've been Peter. But I want to be John. Why did John negotiate the night and not fail? How did he do that? What is it? What happened to Peter? Why did he wash out? When I began to think about it this week, I began to think, and I tried to ask myself the question, what would make a man totally deny his most dearly held convictions? What would it take to get me to do that? By the end of the week, I was like, no, no, it wasn't abstract convictions that he denied. Who did he deny? person It was a person he denied What would it take to get me to deny the person that I knew the person I loved the most What would it take to get me to do that skin for skin remember Satan said that all man has He'll give to save his neck And that's what happened with Peter. To save his neck, to save his own neck, he's willing to deny the one who meant more to him than any other person. It wasn't just abstract theology and convictions that he was denying. It was a person in a room across a courtyard who another one of the gospels tells us that when Peter denied him and the rooster crows, Jesus looked at him. Next week, we'll consider why. Let's just close in a word of prayer. Father, we've all found ourselves in Peter's shoes. And none of us are proud of it. We all hang our heads in shame. There's all of us who at some point in our life have heard the rooster crow. And we've had to go out and weep bitterly. And I guess the thing that so encourages us from that truth is that Lord Jesus, you didn't throw Peter under the bus. He denied him, but he was still yours. Although we denied you, Lord, you loved him. And I thank you for that, because it encourages us. Dismiss us with your love, in Jesus' name.