Last week I recommended that we all should give some thought to the cost of your sins being forgiven. Referred to Romans chapter 6 verse 23 says for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now we often emphasize the fact that salvation is given by God by grace. That it is a free gift in no way deserved by those who receive it. Now that is a very important aspect of salvation. It's the only way it can be received. We cannot work for it, we cannot earn it, we cannot deserve it in any way at all. We believe and proclaim that salvation is by grace alone, is only by a free gift from God. But there was a price required by God for our sin. Because God is holy and God is just, that price must be paid. God cannot just let sin go. The wages of sin is death. That price must be paid. And if you have received the free gift of salvation, that price was not and never will be paid by you. But it was paid by Jesus in your place. And that price was very high. And we began to see last week, as we continue in a study of the Gospel of Mark, just how high the cost of our forgiveness was. As we worked through Mark 14, verses 32 through 42, and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. We saw there that Jesus was very distressed. He was troubled, and he was grieved. to the point of death according to verses 33 and 34. Because he knew what was required of him for our sin to be forgiven. Now if you think about what Jesus suffered there in that garden and realize that God's wrath wasn't being poured out on him yet. He hadn't taken our sins upon himself yet. The price to be paid for your sins wasn't being paid yet. But just knowing what was coming the next day on the cross almost killed Jesus before He even went to the cross. We saw that Jesus prayed three times to the Father that if there was any other way to do this, that the Father would permit Him to let this cup pass him by and do it any other way. The cost of our forgiveness was so high, just the thought of it almost killed Jesus. And he would have preferred to not have to go through with it. But we saw that he also prayed, yet not what I will, but what you will. The answer Jesus got to his prayers was no. There is no other way. It was the Father's will for Jesus to take that cup, to drink it all, to pay the price for your sins for you. That's a short summary of what we saw last week. And Jesus would obey. He would do what His Father asked of Him. He would be humble. He would submit Himself all the way to death on the cross. And we also saw last week that the whole time that Jesus suffered so much in that garden, His friends who should have cared enough about Him to spend that time praying for Him and with Him, they all slept through it. According to the Gospel of Luke, we didn't look at this last week, But Luke tells us that an angel came to strengthen Jesus. He was in such distress. Luke also tells us that his sweat became like drops of blood falling onto the ground. Now whether that means that he was just sweating so much that it was dripping off of him like blood drips from a wound, or if it means that literally his blood was escaping out of his pores because he was under such distress, I don't know if we know for sure, but he was so distressed by how much it was going to cost him to pay for our sins. And the disciples just slept through it. Now don't we often do that too? Probably often in regard to our sin, the sacrifice that was required of Jesus for our sin to be paid for? Don't we often take it so lightly, it's like we're sleeping through it? It doesn't matter all that much. Don't we often take the death that Jesus died for us as just a given? It happened so long ago, it doesn't really matter all that much anymore. We sleep through it, like those disciples did. That's sad. The price Jesus paid for our sin was so high. As bad as that scene was there in the Garden of Eden, as we continue into the next verses, it gets worse. As we progress in the Gospels We're looking here specifically in the Gospel of Mark through that Thursday night and into that Friday. It's like we're going down a staircase. Every verse we come to is another step down into the deepest, darkest pit imaginable and beyond imagination. As the situation for Jesus just keeps getting worse and worse and Jesus humbles himself more and more, stepping down further and further to pay the price required for your sin. Now in the garden, Jesus and his suffering were ignored by his sleepy friends. In the verses we're looking at today, Jesus is betrayed to his enemies by a former friend. Let's begin verse 43, Mark 14. Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now, remembering back on what we have seen just recently of that night, that Thursday night, Judas had been dismissed from that upper room where Jesus had been with his disciples still in Jerusalem. Jesus told him, according to John, that what he was going to do, he was to do quickly. And what he was going to do was to report to the chief priests that this was the night that he could turn Jesus over to them without stirring up the whole city. If you remember, the chief priests had a plan that they were going to wait until after this week-long feast to arrest Jesus so it could be done without a riot. That plan changed when Judas came to them and offered to turn Jesus over to them. Because he would be able to do it at a time when Jesus was away from the crowds. And remember, Jesus knew that. He knew this deal that Judas had made with the chief priests. Jesus had known for a long time that Judas was going to do this to him. Judas knew that Jesus would be going to this garden after they left that upper room. This was a place that Jesus went with his disciples often. He didn't come here to run away and hide. He came here to pray and to prepare himself for what he knew was coming. It probably took some time, even though Judas was told to do this quickly. It probably took a while. for this band of thugs to be rounded up. The Jewish religious leaders probably had to get permission from the Roman authorities to involve some of their soldiers. And it's interesting to see this situation unfolding here, knowing how much the Jews hated the Romans. If it meant getting rid of Jesus, they could work together on this. This is one area that they could cooperate on. if it meant getting rid of Jesus. And when it says in verse 43, while he was still speaking, remember, we know what Jesus was saying. He was saying that Peter, James, and John, three of his closest friends, needed to wake up. They'd been sleeping as he was almost dying in that garden from his grieving. They need to stand up. They need to get moving because the betrayer is coming. And as I pointed out last week, that doesn't mean get moving to run away. But get moving, we're going to go meet him. The next scene begins while Jesus was still speaking to Peter, James, and John. Just then, Judas, one of the twelve, came up. Now, as we've been studying through the Gospel of Mark, anyone who reads through the Gospel of Mark knows well who Judas is by this point. We know Judas. Mark didn't really need to say he was one of the twelve. We know that. But he includes that little detail, most likely to emphasize the relationship there had been between Jesus and Judas. We know that Jesus knew about Judas from the start. Jesus knew that Judas would be the one who would end up betraying him. Yet, this is true, that Judas was one of the twelve. He was one of them. One among those twelve men. None of the other disciples had a clue that Judas would be that bad guy who would betray Jesus. Even when, as we saw, Jesus told them earlier that night, one of the twelve would betray Him. Even when, as we looked at in the Gospel of John, some of the details there, he got specific and he said, it's the one I'm going to hand this bread to. He handed it to Judas, then told Judas to leave. And they still did not suspect Judas. They assumed that he was leaving to buy some supplies or to give a gift to the poor. And I've pointed this out before, that that tells us something about the way Jesus treated Judas. Even though Jesus knew about Judas. Even that night when Jesus washed Judas' feet, He knew about Judas. Jesus treated him just like He treated the other eleven. He cared about him. He cared for him. He provided for him. He taught him. He showed him miraculous signs that proved His deity. He proclaimed the Gospel to him. Every advantage that could be given to one who is in the presence of the Messiah, Judas had it. If you've ever wondered how a child could grow up in a family that seems so godly and yet goes astray. Remember Judas. Remember the time that Judas spent with the Messiah and yet he rejected it all and went the way of Satan. But Jesus had treated him as a close friend. He was one of the twelve. And now He comes accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who are from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. It's pretty low, isn't it? For someone who had been treated so well by Jesus to show up now with these men who are going to arrest Him. He was one of the twelve. That's low. But it gets worse. Verse 44. Now he who is betraying him had given them a signal saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one. Seize him and lead him away under guard. Now obviously, customs across cultures can be different. A man greeting another man with a kiss in our culture could result in a black eye or some really nasty rumors. Let's not do that. Let's just not do that. In that culture, at that time, it was a common and respectful greeting. They did that. It was respectful. It was a way of greeting a friend. And Judas used this to set up a sign for these soldiers and temple police Some of them wouldn't know who Jesus was. Some of them hadn't seen him before. They didn't have wanted posters with pictures on them at the time. And it was going to be dark. They were going to have to pick somebody out from the dark who they weren't all that familiar with, some of them. Contrary to pictures you may have seen, Jesus's face didn't glow. He didn't have a halo over his head. So they needed some way of knowing which one was him. In the darkness on that hillside, Jesus would have looked just like any other guy standing in the dark on that hillside. So Judas' plan to point him out was that he's going to be the one that I make it look like he is a really good friend of mine. That's the one. Seize him. and take him away under guard. Verse 45 tells us that's exactly then what Judas did. After coming, Judas immediately went to him, saying, Rabbi, and kissed him. Now, greeting him as Rabbi, teacher, is a respectful way of coming up to Jesus. Hello, teacher. Hello, one who knows so much and teaches everyone else. and then kissing him in the manner that he did, and the language used here is of a not just something you would do to a passerby or an acquaintance. This was a sign of friendship. It was so full of hypocrisy and sarcasm. He showed respect and friendship in his actions. But he meant the opposite. Betraying Jesus was awful. The way he did it was even worse. Now before we get to Jesus being arrested, there are a few details from the Gospel of John that I'd like to point out to help us understand some of what comes later. So if you turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 18, John 18, verse 4. John 18, verse 4 says this, So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon him, went forth and said to them, Whom do you seek? Notice the details we have there. And remember, Jesus knew. He knew what was coming. He knew everything that was about to happen. He goes forth and he says, after Judas' greeting, he says to the rest of that crowd, whom do you seek? And we're going to see that there were a couple of reasons that Jesus asked that question. First of all, it was a means of protecting the rest of the eleven. Disciples Because it was going to be clear to everyone there that night Those who are there to arrest Jesus were there to arrest Jesus and not these other guys And Jesus wanted that to be very clear to everyone Second Jesus asked this question because this is going to show everyone Who is actually in charge of what happened that night? If you look at verse five, John 18, it says, they answered him, Jesus, the Nazarene. Jesus asked, whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus, the Nazarene. He said to them, I am he. And Judas also, who was betraying him, was standing with them. So when he said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Now that is an amazing detail. about what happened that night. Mark didn't include that. I think it helps us understand some of what comes next by seeing this detail from John. If you have a Bible that indicates when the translators added a word to help it make more sense in English, then you will see that the word he is italicized, which means that wasn't there originally. So how Jesus actually identified himself was with the words, I am. Whom do you seek? Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus' response, I am. Now that is related to how God identified himself to Moses at the burning bush. And Moses has questions. When I go into Egypt and tell them that God says, let my people go. They're going to have some questions for me. Which God? What God are you talking about? Who shall I tell them sent me? You remember God's answer to him? Tell them, I am sent you. I am. Self-existent. God over the universe. Dependent on nothing. Sovereign God. I am. Think about this scene on the edge of that garden that night. There were probably hundreds of soldiers and temple police and others there that night. Some say that the regiment that was sent would be like 600 soldiers plus the temple police. There might have been close to a thousand people who came out to arrest Jesus that night. If it wasn't that, it was at least hundreds, hundreds of people. Many of them were trained fighting men. They came with their swords, their clubs, and confronted a man with 11 followers. A man who had no army, had no horses, no chariots, had never battled anyone that they had been aware of. Hundreds of trained men come and confront a man with 11 followers. And just by Jesus identifying himself, all of those hundreds of men who came to arrest Jesus were knocked back off of their feet and onto the ground. This was an involuntary response of sinners being shown that they cannot stand before the I Am. Sinners cannot stand before a Holy God. So whatever was going to happen that night was only going to happen if Jesus allowed it. Just by identifying Himself, He showed them that night who was in charge. It was Him and not them. So in verse 7, John 18, Therefore he again asked them, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene. Now, I would assume that they said that the second time with a lot less confidence. The first time it was Jesus the Nazarene, the second time it was Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus answered, I told you, I am. So if you seek me, let these go their way, to fulfill the word which he spoke. Of those whom you have given me, I lost not one. Now Jesus prayed that to the Father. Those you gave to me, I didn't lose any. Now notice also here in verses eight, verse eight specifically, Jesus gave a command to these hundreds of men who came to arrest him. It didn't matter how many hundreds there were, how strong they thought they were, Jesus gave a command. He is the I am. They had to obey. You're here to arrest me, not these guys. Let them go. Now we see here, as we saw last week, that no matter how bad things were getting for Jesus, he was still watching out for his disciples. Jesus cares for His own, and we should be encouraged by that. Jesus' disciples just pretty continually failed Jesus. They slept when He needed them most. He knew they were about to deny Him and flee, and yet Jesus cared about them. Even when His captors were standing before Him, ready to take Him away, When He was going to suffer the wrath of God, He made sure that His disciples were going to be okay. I'll come back to Mark 14, verse 46. This comes after what we just saw there in the Gospel of John. Mark 14, verse 46. They laid hands on him and seized him. And we know that that's only because Jesus allowed it. And what comes next in Mark is a little surprising. Verse 47, but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Now John tells us which one it was who drew his sword. without looking, and if you had never read through the Gospels before, we would know which one it was who drew his sword, wouldn't we? It was Peter. Peter drew his sword. Good old Peter. Probably trying to make good on his claim that he would be willing to stand with Jesus even if he had to die for it. He had made that claim that night, and he was going to make good. Pulls out his sword, starts swinging, cuts off the ear of the slave, the high priest. And one thing that's really interesting here in Mark is that Mark doesn't say anything more about that event with the sword in the ear. How did this not turn into a big thing with Peter? How did he not get struck down by all those soldiers with their swords and clubs? How did Peter and the other 11 disciples not either get struck down or arrested? Well, it's because of what we saw there in John. Jesus had already shown everyone who is in charge of the situation. So before any soldier would dare to do anything about it, Jesus stopped Peter. John tells us that Jesus said to Peter, put the sword into the sheath, the cup which the father has given me, shall I not drink it? He's telling Peter, you're not going to stop this. This is God's will. It has to happen this way. Matthew 26, 53 records that Jesus said, or do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? Jesus says, if I wanted to, I could call down more than 72,000 angels. They could come to my rescue. There was one angel in the Old Testament that killed like 100,000 men. What could more than 72,000 angels do? This wasn't something that was beyond Jesus's ability. Jesus could have done that if that was God's plan. But it wasn't. Peter didn't need to try to take this into his own hands. Luke tells us in Luke 22 51, But Jesus answered and said, Stop, no more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. John also tells us the guy's name. It was Malchus. You've got to wonder what Malchus was thinking about Jesus right at that point. It doesn't say that Jesus sewed his ear back on. It says Jesus healed it. Now if he healed it, that means it was completely, perfectly healed. At one second, Malchus sees a a shining sword coming at his head. He moves his head as quickly as he can. His ear is now gone, laying on the ground. He's got blood running down from his head. And a few seconds later, his ear is back on. There's no scar. There's no bleeding. There's no mark there anymore. It was healed completely. This makes you wonder, what did Malchus think about that? We don't know. We're not told. It's interesting to think about. What was the rest of Malchus's life like after something like that happening to him? What about everyone else who was there and saw it happen? Well, we don't know, but we do know that's how Jesus stopped that from turning into a big problem. And by doing so, Jesus saved his disciples. But he didn't save himself. Remember that as you're thinking about the cost of the forgiveness of your sins. He saved his disciples. He didn't save himself. He could have. He chose not to. Going on in verse 48, and Jesus said to them, have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me, but this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures." And by this, Jesus is again saying, you guys are not the ones in charge here. This is happening because this is what God said was gonna happen. This is God's predetermined plan that's been revealed in scripture. That's why this is happening. You guys could do nothing if God didn't permit it. You guys would not lay a hand on me if I didn't allow it. And Jesus is also correcting his captors as he points out their foolishness. What they were doing was not according to law. I didn't look up all the places that we find this, but according to what I did read, these things weren't supposed to be happening like this at night. This was against the law that Israel had. The law that the Jewish religious leaders claimed to respect so much. They were breaking their own laws. The way they were doing this showed what kind of cowards they were. They wouldn't arrest Jesus in broad daylight because they feared the crowds. But under the cover of darkness, they would come with hundreds and hundreds of thugs, with swords and clubs. to arrest one man. It's kind of like they knew Jesus wasn't just a man. Why would they come with this many to arrest him? They did arrest him. As they walked back to Jerusalem, they must have gone back with a lot less confidence than they had come to that garden with. Jesus was in control that night. But he willingly humbled himself a lot. He came so far down from those glories that he enjoyed in heaven with the Father. He willingly took the next steps down into the deepest, darkest pit to pay the price that we owed for our sins. Now as he continued taking those steps down, he went alone. Verse 50 says, and they all left him and fled. Now you think about the expectations that these disciples have had about how things were supposed to be because Jesus is the Messiah. He's supposed to be this reigning king bringing in His kingdom, they're going to reign with Him. And all those expectations they had of how they thought it was supposed to be, this was not how they thought it was supposed to be. The Messiah, their King, being led away as a prisoner. They have been through some really hard things with Jesus before. A couple of different times in storms, in a boat. They've been through opposition from Jewish authorities before. Sometimes, in some of those situations they've been in, things have looked hopeless for a while. But they've always been able to turn to Jesus, and Jesus has fixed it. This time, though, Jesus is saying He's not going to fix this. So now, for the first time since they've known Jesus, it looks like they can't turn to Jesus to make this better. They're afraid now to be associated with Jesus. So Jesus has been betrayed by one of his own. He's been arrested by people who want him dead. The disciples have no idea what to do. They're afraid and so they run. They leave Jesus behind with his captors because what else are they going to do? Jesus has said you can't stop this. This is the way it's going to be. What else were they going to do? Now, I'm honestly not sure if the right thing for them to do would have been to go with Jesus or to turn around and go somewhere else. Because Jesus has made it clear that you're not going to arrest these guys. They weren't under arrest. But what should they have done that night? Well, it's what we do know. is that whichever direction the disciples walked that night, it should have been with faith instead of fear. They ran away in fear. They could have, should have walked away in faith. Jesus had told them that this was going to happen. And he's never been wrong about anything. He's proven himself. to these disciples that he is trustworthy. He has told them exactly what was going to come next. So they could have said, okay Jesus, we trust you. You've got this. We'll see you Sunday. They could have said that. Now I'm not saying that's what I would have said had I been there. I'm sure I would have been running right along with them had I been there. But they could have, should have, trusted Jesus. They should have believed God's Word that this is how it had to be. But He's going to win. He's going to rise from the dead because He told them He was. But they weren't looking at it that way. Remember, the shepherd has now been struck just as Jesus said would happen back in verse 27 when he was quoting a prophecy from Zechariah. What was the result that Zechariah and Jesus said would be because the shepherd is struck, the sheep would be scattered. These are those sheep. This is them being scattered. They run away in fear, just like Jesus and Zechariah said they would. And then we have this kind of strange footnote to the story. Only Mark records, verses 51 and 52. A young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked. Now there has always been a lot of speculation about who this is and why he was there. I read a commentary from a couple hundred years ago and The author of that commentary was speculating or wondering, questioning, who is this individual? Why was he there? Why is this included here? Read modern commentaries that do the same. But all of it is just speculation. We don't know. We don't know who this was. The most common assumption is that this was Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark. When he was a young man, he was a witness to this. He was interested and went to see what was going on. But we don't know. We don't know if this was Mark. What this does tell us is that there was another interested individual, someone who cared about Jesus, was following, wanted to know what was going to happen, but then this one chose the shame of nakedness over being associated with Jesus when things started to look bad. So it was another one who could have trusted Jesus in this time. But rather than face this darkness with Jesus, he chose the shame of nakedness, ran away, because it looked like this is getting bad. It would be bad for him. It emphasizes again that Jesus is now alone. Though it's sad, to see Jesus abandoned by his friends at a time like this. It had to be this way. As Jesus said, the Scriptures had to be fulfilled. And part of the Scriptures being fulfilled is Jesus suffering on the cross alone. Because only Jesus was qualified to take our place and to bear our sin. and make an acceptable payment for those sins. The disciples couldn't do it. The disciples could not die for us. Their deaths, if they had died that night, wouldn't have helped us at all. There is no saint from history who could atone for our sins. There is no one else who could help you, help your problem of sin at all. Only Jesus and Jesus alone can help you. Now that shows us a little more about the high price that was paid for our sins to be forgiven. That no one in all of creation, through all of history, is qualified. Only Jesus and Jesus alone. Now we're going to continue on taking more steps down that staircase of Jesus' humiliation into that deepest, darkest pit as we pick up here next week and continue on in the Gospel of Mark.