Let's go ahead and give ear now to John's Gospel, chapter 18, beginning in verse 12, going through verse 27. I've titled this lesson, Faith Under Fire. John chapter 18, beginning in verse 12. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? He said, I am not. Now the servants and the officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold. They were standing and warming themselves, and Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself. The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching, and 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 had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand saying, is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him, if what I have said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. But if what I have 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. As far as the reading of God's word. Challenges to our faith will come in all different shapes and sizes. These will develop more and more for you as you grow. Right now, you're largely in contexts where it's not that much challenged, but it will, and that will increase, certainly, as you grow, as you go off to, some of you will be going to college in a couple of months, and for the first time in your life, you'll be part of an institution that is not explicitly Christian. That'll be a challenge. And then some of you who are going to Christian colleges, after college, you'll get a job. And for that first time in your life, you'll be going into an institution that's not explicitly Christian. Challenges to faith come in all different shapes and sizes. As many different people as there are in the world, there are that many different challenges to our faith. And Jesus was no exception. And Jesus said to his disciples on this very night, There's a few chapters earlier in John's Gospel, and I think, again, I mentioned this a couple times last week, it's easy to lose track of the fact that from chapters 13 to 18, that's five or so chapters of Scripture that's covered, really, our last several months of study. It's about 12 hours that's being recorded of what has happened here. And Jesus said, earlier this very night, John chapter 13, verses 15 to 17, he said, I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done. For truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. The point is, Jesus is on trial. He's before the high priest, he's going to be on trial before Pilate. And a servant, you and I, In this immediate context, Peter and the disciples are not greater than the master. Peter is on trial. He's not in a courtroom, he's not in a formal setting like Jesus, but he is on trial, and you'll notice that as you look at our text, the ESV gives you these section headings that are very helpful, and you notice there's a back and forth. There's Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas, verses 12 to 14, and then there's Peter denying Jesus to the servant girl in verses 15 to 18, and then we're going back to the trial of Jesus and the high priest in verses 19 to 24, and then we go back again to Peter, in verses 25 to 27, and this is not an accident on John's part, he's not cluttered, he's not disorganized, he means to be laying before you a side-by-side example. He's using Peter and Jesus to illustrate that principle that Jesus had taught them earlier that night, that a servant is not greater than his master. Or what we might say otherwise, what Christ went through his disciples will also go through. This is why Jesus is called in the epistle to the Hebrews, the founder of salvation. And that word founder, it doesn't mean founder in the sense that we would say, you know, an explorer finds a land that had been heretofore unknown. That's not the idea of founder. The Greek word is archagon, from which we get our word archetype. He is the foundation layer. He is the founder in the sense of the origin of an organization, a movement whose principles and whose vision will be followed. And so just as he underwent trial, just as he underwent sufferings, yes, he did so as our substitute. And we will talk about that and we speak often about that. But he also did so as our example. He did both. We are being conformed to the pattern of the life of Jesus. I may have brought this up to you guys last week, though I can't remember everything I said. There's that famous episode in the book of Acts where John and Peter, actually the two disciples that are at play here, they are taken before the governing authorities and they're told, you must not preach in this name. You must not preach about Jesus. And they say, you say what you want, but we cannot help but to speak about him. And they are beaten and then released. And they rejoice in their sufferings because the scripture says they were counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the name. As Christ went, so will his disciples go. So Jesus serves as our great example. Now for the sake of, just ease and organization following the lesson. We're going to look first at the trial of Jesus as our example, and then we will look at the trial of Peter. So first, the trial of Jesus versus really 19 to 24 is where we're going to focus on. And it'll be helpful at the outset of this to review just kind of the general sequence of events that happen in Jesus's final hours in his earthly ministry. First, there's his arrest. That's what we looked at last week. Then there's the Jewish trial. Then there's the Roman trial. And then finally, there's the crucifixion. So we're at step two of that. We're at the Jewish trial. Does anyone know why there's a Jewish trial and a Roman trial? Anybody want to venture a guess? Andrew? Didn't the Romans take away the power to execute people from the Jews? Yeah, that's exactly right. The Romans are the only ones who have the authority to execute capital punishment, right? And we have the same, we don't have the exact same setup here, but like the church puts ministers on trial for for heresy, for improper conduct, for all kinds of things, and yet the church does not have the right to exercise capital punishment. In a similar way, the Romans don't care about Jesus' preaching. They don't care about his claims to be the God of Abraham. They don't care about his claims to be the Messiah. It doesn't matter to them. They're not concerned with these things. So they're not going to convict him for anything like that. The Jews care and they care a lot because he's a threat then to their authority, to their power. So they try him to find him guilty of, of blasphemy, which they're going to do falsely. And then they're going to spin the charge a little bit. They're going to twist the charge a little bit and said, this man says he's a king. He's a threat to Caesar to get the Romans to execute him. So there's a two tiered process here. So we're in the Jewish trial and again, I'm gonna try and get through this briefly, but there's some helpful things to know just about Jewish law that this trial was conducted under. First of all, it was conducted according to both scripture and the Talmud, which is a rabbinic interpretation of the scriptures. And we want to always be careful when we have things that are extra-biblical, but in principle, there's no problem with that, right? We have our own confessional standards, we have our own Book of Church Order, we have these things that are drawing on and expounding on biblical principles. And that's the idea behind the Talmud, is that they are extrapolating from the Bible how to do this, from the Old Testament as it stood. And so one thing about that is the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is a group It's a court made up of 70 members. They get this from the book of Numbers, chapter 11, verses 16 and 17, where Moses is told to gather 70 elders amongst the people of Israel to help him in judging and leading the people. And so the Sanhedrin is 70 plus one, because 70 plus one, you have 70 elders and Moses, 71. So also you have 71 of the Sanhedrin. These groups were divided. There was 23 priests, 23 scribes, and 23 elders, which adds up to 69, plus two presiding officers, which makes it an in the sense of an even number, but makes it the accurate number of 71. Jesus himself alludes to this structuring of the court, saying that the Son of Man must go and suffer many violences, must be executed at the hands of the priests, the scribes, and the elders. Matthew 16.21, Jesus references this structure of the court. And then there is the role of witnesses in the court. It's fundamentally different than the way we think of witnesses in our modern American context. What role does a witness provide in the court of law today? They give evidence. I saw this. The trial might cover A through F, but I saw B, right? I saw this part of it. This is my testimony to this part. In the Jewish courts, the witness actually had to be a complete witness. Had to cover the whole gamut of the trial. Had to be some level of witness to all of what's under discussion. The witnesses all must be in substantial agreement, both as to the crime that was committed, as well as the circumstances of it. And the witnesses must stand as accusers. They're saying, I saw him do it. I heard him say it, whatever it was. And there's also a degree that I think is actually very instructive here. Witnesses must, because they were present to the crime, must have tried to warn the offender of the penalty of said crime and in some way serve to have prevented him. It's actually a noble thing. You care about this enough to testify that this man should die, did you try to stop him when you saw him doing it? And the reason there is, again, it's a preventative tool, but it's also designed to establish criminal intent. This person knowingly broke the law. This person was made aware of what they were doing. Then there's a couple other things I'm just gonna read here about the mode of trial. The mode of trial in capital cases, this is from James Boyce, is something to be considered more completely in our subsequent study of Jesus's actual trial. But, we may note here a few basic requirements. First, it was to be conducted between the offering of the morning sacrifice and the offering of the evening sacrifice. That is, in daylight and with a reminder that all that was done was done within the clear view of God and by those who stood in proper relationship to Him. When is this trial taking place? At night. breaking the first fundamental principle. Second, the judges were never to seek to condemn the accused, but were by contrast to take his side and seek every means for his acquittal. The accusers are there to get him convicted. The judges say, not necessarily unreasonable doubt here. The judge is actually supposed to be on his side. Is that what we read here? No. Three, The accused could not be convicted by a bare majority. Rather, it must be a majority of two. That is, 37 of the total 71 judges was necessary. Fourth, by strange contrast, a unanimous vote for condemnation was also invalid, for this was judged to be an emotional decision based on mob action. Fifth, the initial guilty vote and the sentence could not be pronounced on the same day. Why? Well, again, trying to avoid the emotional response of something. Trying to avoid being led by the heart as opposed to what's just according to God's word. So these are the principles that are in play, and we see that this court broke every single one of them. every single one of them. And yet, in the face of all that, I want to look at Jesus as our example, and just note three things about his example here. Look at verse 19, or look at verse 20. Jesus answers the charge, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogues and at the temple where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said. They know what I said. We'll just pull three principles out of those two verses. First is that Jesus spoke the truth plainly. He spoke plainly. He said, why are you asking me? I've taught in synagogues. I've taught to great crowds. They know what I said. They heard me. They can testify to what I have claimed. Teacher can only do that if he's speaking plainly, if he's speaking with clarity, if he's speaking with simplicity. And so also we ought to speak the truth of God's word in whatever context we find ourselves, plainly. I mean this and not that. We want to speak plainly. He also speaks publicly. He says, I have spoken openly to the world. Think it's a shameful thing that so many people in the world know so much more what we think about Politicians know what we think about laws know what we think about cultural issues Then they have any idea what we believe about the Lord Jesus Christ We speak much more openly politically than we do biblically Not saying we shouldn't speak openly politically. And I'm not saying the two are completely divorced from one another. Hopefully we oppose things like homosexual marriage. We oppose things like transgenderism. We oppose things like abortion, not because we personally find them disgusting, but because they're opposed to God's word. Right? So the two things are not divorced from each other, but We want to speak openly about what we believe about the Lord Jesus Christ. And to the degree that people know more our political views than our theological views, I think we're failing. I think it's a real failing in our day and age. And then finally, he speaks truthfully. Notice the guard takes offense. One of the officers standing by struck Jesus. Is that how you answer the priest? Jesus answered him, if what I have said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong. But if what I have said is true or right, why do you strike me? He speaks the truth. We have nothing to fear when we speak the truth in a clear, public way. Yes, we'll be reviled for it, that's true, but we speak the truth nonetheless. May it be that we would be known publicly as those who hold the faith in sincerity and in truth, even in the face of wickedness. I bring that up to make one just concluding point from this section, and we'll move on to Peter in just a moment here. This system, system of Jewish law, Hebrew law, with the Sanhedrin and all that stuff, it's actually I hope as I read it to you from Dr. Boyce and as I read it, it actually sounds like a relatively just system. Because it is basically informed by biblical principles. And yet, they're going to find him guilty anyway, who is innocent. Why is that? I'm asking you a question. I'm literally not going to say another word until somebody answers me. Why is it that even with such a just system, they still find him guilty? Because you can't have perfect justice in a sinless world. You can't have perfect justice in a sinful world. Okay, true. And that's absolutely right. Can somebody add to that? They want to find him guilty. They want to find him guilty. And so these two go exactly together, right? The reason we can't have perfect justice in a sinful world is because sinners want to find fault. And they specifically, with the Lord Jesus Christ, they want to find him guilty. It doesn't matter what guardrails, what parameters you put in place around any sin in your life. As long as you want it, you will find a way around whatever is in your way. That's why I try and stress with you guys, a growing in sanctification is not just a growing in knowledge of scripture, though it involves that. It's not just a I've got this sin struggle, whatever it might be, and I'm going to refrain from it, and I'm going to do this instead, though that's part of it. You have to get to the point where you recognize your sin as filthy and odious, that it's not pleasant to you. Because as long as you desire it, you will find a way to pursue it. No matter what guardrails, what parameters you put. Put guardrails, put parameters, make it more difficult. but we have to grow in a hatred of sin if we actually want to grow in a pursuit of true, honest righteousness. They find him guilty because they want to find him guilty. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all, who can understand it? That's true of all of us. So we've seen how Jesus did under trial and notice also that Despite the injustice and the wrongness of it, he just remains steady and consistent, open and true. That's the call on us as well. We don't have to make right every single offense committed against us. We remain faithful no matter what. All right, so let's look at Peter, who's got his section kind of broken up here in verses 15 to 18, and then also in verses 25 to 27. I want to say basically two big picture ideas about Peter here. The one is that Peter tends to get beat up for this episode. Rightly so. The scripture does not look favorably upon this. And yet we don't want to do this without paying some degree of respect to the defensible nature of this. First of all, Peter actually, unlike the other 10, did follow Jesus this far. He was actually there. That merits some bit of credit. Verse 15 tells us that he followed Jesus after they arrested him. And then also, we saw in our previous passage, in verse 10 of chapter 18, that in the heat of the moment, he actually rose to the defense of Jesus, cutting off the ear of Malchus. Now, that was not the proper response. That was not the proper way to engage this at all. And yet, we want to give some degree of credit, some degree of recognition that He tried to do the right thing. He tried to be faithful. But he's ultimately going to fail, and that's what we're really gonna focus on, is he's got three failings here, and the first is he's got an overconfidence, an overestimation of himself. It's not in John's Gospel, because John is writing later, and he's assuming that you've read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, or at least one of them, who all record Peter's boasting. Though all others should fall away from you, I will never betray you. Take heed when you're prone to trust in yourself. Take heed when you're prone to have confidence merely in yourself. You know, I was talking to Vitor recently before he preached. He kind of got a last minute preaching assignment because I was otherwise busy having a baby and stuff. But he jumped on, you know, supporting Bethany having a baby anyway. So he took a preaching notice that Monday morning before Sunday, and I talked to him Sunday night and said, are you ready? And he said, no, absolutely not. But I throw myself on the mercies of God. And it was an excellent sermon because he was not confident in himself, but he was confident in the power of the word of God. Similarly, don't you put too much confidence in yourself. Trust rather in God who is able to deliver, who is able to provide, who is able, in this case, to preserve you. As we go out into the world, and we go out into college, or we go out into the workplace, or we go out into all these other environments where our faith will be challenged, don't say, look, I had Pastor Early teach me the confession for four years and I got it down. I hope it's helpful to you, but your confidence isn't in what you know or what you've been taught. It certainly shouldn't be in me. Don't say, you know, I'm confident because I memorized the Children's Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, I know what I believe. Again, these are good things, but your confidence is I am actively communing with the Lord. every day of my life, and he will sustain me. He will keep me. He who calls is faithful. He will surely do it. I am confident this very thing that he who has begun a good work will bring it to completion. That is where our confidence rests. When we take our eyes off of that is when we fall. So don't be overconfident in yourself. Secondly, while it is commendable that Peter followed Jesus He did so at a distance, and we get this from Luke's record of the events. Luke 22, 54 records that he followed at some distance. I wanna draw near. I don't wanna be content with being loosely affiliated with Jesus. I wanna be as close as I can possibly get. Of course, we're using a physical proximity here that's not really what we're talking about. The point is, if you're coming to church most Sundays and most Wednesdays, that's good. But let's work towards, let's endeavor to be with Jesus more than Wednesday night and Sunday morning and Sunday night. Let's walk with him daily. Let's walk near with him daily. Let's have his word constantly being in our mind and on our lips. It should almost be involuntary sometimes that you just find yourself speaking in biblical terms and in biblical categories. I remember when I found out that my dad had cancer, I called him and spoke to him for the first time in a couple of years. And I didn't really plan out what I was going to say, and I didn't have my Bible open, and I wasn't thinking of memory verses and all these kinds of things. But just in the course of conversation, I started speaking Bible to him. I didn't quote any verses. I didn't cite any passages. I didn't say, John says such and such. And he was inflamed. He was furious because he knew I was speaking God's word to him. Fair enough. But the point is, I didn't mean to. It's just, that's what comes out when you meditate on it. It ought to be the case that we follow Jesus nearly, closely, having his word in our minds and on our lips. And then finally, There's one final failure that Peter has here that's not explicitly listed in the text, but it is in the Synoptic Gospels. What is it that Jesus was doing right before he was arrested? Anybody know? Nope. Yeah, praying. And in the Synoptic Gospels, in the Garden of Gethsemane, who did he have with him? It's a little bit trickier. I'll let you go again, Mr. Mobley. Disciples. Okay, yeah, but there were three specific ones. Peter, James, and John. Yes, Peter, James, and John. And what did he tell them? Watch and pray. And what did they do? They fell asleep. They didn't pray. Peter didn't pray. And he winds up denying the Lord three times over, starting with pressure, again, no disrespect, but from a teenage girl, which to a grown man should not be all that intimidating. All due respect. He didn't pray. He didn't follow the most basic instruction. He didn't ask for the Lord's help. Now the good news is this, is that when You and I are faithless. He remains faithful. For he cannot deny himself. Although Peter will fall this night because he did not pray, Jesus also said earlier this same night, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. So why is it that Peter, though he fails tonight, doesn't fail and fall away completely? Because while he was overconfident in himself, while he followed at a distance, while he failed to pray, the Lord Jesus interceded for him, praying to the Father that he would send the Spirit. Jesus, though Peter followed a distance, was right there with him. We actually read on the third denial that Jesus makes eye contact with Peter in Luke 22, 61. And Jesus had his confidence in the Father, who knows and governs all things. And so when we fail, when we fail to honor the example, remember, that he is also our substitute who did it in our behalf and for our sake. Let's pray. God in heaven, we give thanks to you for these contrasting pictures of Peter, who we are so much like, and Jesus, who we are so unlike. And we ask, Lord, that it would please you to make us more like Jesus, from one degree of glory to the next. We pray in his name, amen.