Well, good morning and greetings in the worthy name of Jesus Christ our worthy Savior Welcome to Our time in the word as we consider The gospel of according to John if you would turn to John chapter 18 and John chapter 18 beginning in verse 12 and reading through verse 27. Let's begin reading John 18, beginning in verse 12. Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. And they led him away to Annas first, For he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to her who kept the door and brought Peter in. Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, you're not also one of this man's disciples, are you? He said, I'm not. Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coal stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself. The high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I have said nothing. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest like that? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? Then Anna sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Therefore they said to him, you're not also 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 him whose ear Peter cut off, said, did I not see you in the garden with him? Peter then denied again, and immediately a rooster crowed. Well this is of course a narrative passage and as we consider the arrest of Christ. This is a very, of course, a very unique passage here in chapter 18. Last time we were in verses 1 through 11 and we seen very clearly there that Christ was actually Not a victim, but he was very much in control of what was happening around there. He gave them a very clear example of his power and his omnipotence and how that when he said, I am he, they fell back to the ground. He showed forth his power in the healing of the servant's ear. But one thing that we notice especially is how that Christ went out to meet him. They went out to meet this gang, this detachment of troops. As it says in, I think it is here in verse four, Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward. and said to them, whom are you seeking? He didn't wait for them to say, hey, we're here looking for Jesus of Nazareth. No, he said, who are you looking for? And he identified himself and made himself known. So it's a very clear picture of how Christ was in control here and that he was not a victim in that sense. Now we come to this second part here and we have we have the actual arrest made. We see, you might take a look at this passage and you might look at Christ in contrast to a very forward man like Peter. And we see the contrast between our Savior and Peter. And how that Peter, we see here in this text, we have Peter denying the famous denial of knowing the Lord, and we have, of course, in contrast to that we have Christ answering for himself the high priest who is questioning him. Interesting to note here, not necessarily just in this text, but as we move through chapter 18, we'll see, and even into chapter 19, we'll see that there were various aspects of his trial. There was the religious trial, and then there was the Roman trial, or the civic trial, or the civil trial. We have Christ being arrested here in our text and then he was brought for what you could say a preliminary hearing before Annas and then he was later brought back after at the end of this text he was brought to the actual high priest. So there are various aspects. This is more of a preliminary informal hearing that we're looking at today but then it goes into a hearing before the Sanhedrin where they're actually trying to pin him down because the it is my understanding that the there would have had to been a recommendation by the high priest in giving him over to pilot for them to consider, there had to be a charge sent along with him. What is this man charged of? And so, that will come, that will come, actually, we won't, John doesn't really address that actual incident before Caiaphas as some of the other accounts in Matthew and Mark and Luke do. But here, we have this first preliminary hearing, then it goes into the actual hearing before the Sanhedrin, and then he is sent to Pilate, and there are a few different aspects of that as well. But for our text this morning, it is the arrest and then taken in the dead of night to the to the house of Annas or maybe we could say his courtyard or wherever, whatever. It doesn't actually say that it is at his home, but they took him to this Annas. So, When you begin in verse 12, it was at this point in the other gospels that you see, especially in Matthew and Mark, I don't think it says it in Luke, but in Matthew and Mark it tells us that the disciples all forsook him and fled. It's in Matthew 26, 56, and in Mark 14, 50, it says, then the disciples forsook him and took to their heels. They took off and run off, in spite of all their, what would you say, their claims that they were going to be faithful to him, they would not be made to stumble. No, we are going to be with you through this, but they fled. And Jesus had informed them that all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered." That's in Matthew 26 and in Mark 14 as well. And that statement by Christ that I will strike to shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered is found in Zechariah 13 in verse 7 where that statement is made and Jesus applied it here to his arrest and the subsequent fear of the disciples and them running away. Now, of course, when we look at this passage and we deal with Peter's denial, I think I will go back to Matthew 26. and read that portion a bit because we don't have it as clearly here in actually it doesn't really make any statement about Peter's subsequent confidence or his confidence in his subsequent denial but in Matthew 26 in verse 32 after that statement where Jesus quoted Zechariah in verse 32, but after I have been raised I will go before you to Galilee Peter answered and said to him even if all are made to stumble because of you I will never be made to stumble Jesus said to him assuredly I say to you that this night before the rooster crows you will deny me three times and And then Mark passage reads almost word for word, Mark 14, this amazing statement by Peter where he says in verse 29, Peter said to him in Mark 14, 29, even if all are made to stumble or to take offense at Christ, if everyone else All these other 10 disciples, if they would all stumble and are made to be offended, I will not. Yet I will not be offended. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, he says, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. Verse 31, but he spoke more vehemently. If I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said, likewise. So we have that as the backdrop. This is right where we are in John now, where we have the arrest, the detachment of troops from the Romans, the Roman garrison and the captain and officer of the Jews thought to be the temple police coming together with the Roman soldiers. Interesting how that the civil authorities And the religious authorities got together and went out to arrest Christ. And we have this account where the followers of Christ were very confident in their abilities to be with him. But Jesus told him assuredly I say to you and the mark passage where it speaks about the rooster crows twice I want to make a note of that it is only in the mark passage that it speaks about the rooster crowing twice the other accounts speak about The rooster crowing once I believe but in the mark passage And I want to make a note because I think it's important as we go through this passage I So in verse 12, as we begin, we see that they finally got done what they wanted to do so many times. They arrested Jesus and bound Him. They had been trying to, the religious authorities, the Pharisees and the high priests and the Sanhedrin had been wanting to do this, get their hands on Christ and get him off the scene because after all he made them rather uncomfortable. He spoke the truth to power and it was not what they wanted to hear. And so they've been after him. If you remember, John 11 after the after the raising of a Lazarus and or after the death of Lazarus in the and Christ raising him at the very end in verse 57 now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was he should report it that they might seize him they were after Christ they were looking to apprehend him in any way that they could and interesting as we look at the first part can you imagine being in this detachment of troops and temple police to come upon Christ in the middle of the night there in the garden of Gethsemane and having him identify himself, and then you involuntarily fall back to the ground as if some unseen force would just have knocked you down. Can you imagine being one of those people? And then you have Peter taking the sword and hacking the ear off of this young man, and Christ, in his compassion, heals him back. And interesting that this is the only example of Christ healing a flesh wound. where there was an accident and Christ healed I say an accident it was it was not an accident by the way is very intentional but it was it was something that had just occurred and Christ healed this flesh wound And still, this same group of people arrest him. Can you imagine how hard-hearted that they must have been for them to arrest Christ after this display, not only of power, but of compassion, where he cared what was happening. They just simply arrested him. And the reason they could bind him They bound him and led him away. You know, we know that theologically and doctrinally is the reason that they could bind him was because he had first bound himself to do his father's will. Notice what he says in verse 11, to Peter, put your sword up. This is the way of the flesh. You cannot achieve what I am looking to achieve by the flesh. The arm of man will not avail. And I believe verse 11, in a sense, is a picture of the gospel. Put your sword up. Cease to strive on your own. The weapons of your warfare will not accomplish what needs to be done. And then he says, shall I not drink the cup which my father has given me? And it was his commitment, his being bound to his father's will that allowed them to bind him and to lead him away, even though it's like he could have led them to the house of Annas. It is picture of how ultimate this is the ultimate submission of Christ to his father's will and it was the cup that he recognized and if you think about that again how Peter truly his act showed that he did not understand what was going on his act of chopping off a striking in with the sword indicated his lack of understanding what was going on in the heavenly realm, that he was being bound for us. And so we see him drinking the cup that his father gave him to drink. They led him away, verse 13, they led him away like a criminal. I don't know how much, if they handcuffed him, but they probably bound his hands behind his back and probably put chains on him and they led him away. Seize him, Judas had said. And so here we see him being led away to his first interrogation. And so their first stop, here in verse 13, was the house or the, wherever this Annas lived, I would assume in the middle of the night. And we see here, that he was the father-in-law. He was related, obviously, to Caiaphas, the current high priest. But the notes that MacArthur notes is that he had been high priest from AD 6 to AD 15, and so he had There are a few things that are a little bit hard to understand from this passage. For instance, verse 19, the high priest then asks Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. you have this whole interaction with with the other disciple in 15 and 17 with the high priest the high priest knowing about him but we see in verse 24 that Anna sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest so it's a little unclear exactly how you know, this phraseology or this terminology, the high priest, is used, was it because he was still viewed as the high priest? Because he had been taken down by Pilate's predecessor, he had been removed from office, this annus, from the office of high priest by Pilate's predecessor, and so maybe the Jews thought, well, he is really truly still the actual high priest, Not his son-in-law KFS, but I don't I'm not sure but interestingly this man according to history no fewer than five of his sons had shared in the office of high priest at some point, and this family had dominated the Sanhedrin for up to 50 years. And so we have this interaction where the very first people, this detachment of temple police, they took him to Annas first, even though he was not the current high priest, that was Caiaphas. So they led him away and this Caiaphas then was the one who spoke in John 11 in regards to, I found this interesting again to go back over that. In John 11 49, if you would flip back there, Following the resurrection of Lazarus, there was just a tremendous hoopla about what was going on. And the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council in verse 47 and said, what shall we do? They were just distraught about the attention that Christ was receiving. For this man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Obviously, you can see that what they were really concerned about was their prominence. Our position, our prestige, and our prominence is going to be taken away. And then in verse 49, and one of them, Caiaphas, from our text, being high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all. Nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." You remember this Caiaphas was very anti-Christ. He was against the Lord Jesus. But God took this wicked man and made a prophecy out of the words that he was saying. Isn't that amazing? That's a beautiful picture of the sovereignty of God in this whole sacrifice, in this whole plan, in this whole... This whole plan of salvation, how he was opposed by the religious authority, the most important person in the Jewish religion, made this prophecy. And in verse 51 it says, now this he did not say on his own authority. You know, he didn't realize that he was being used in speaking truth. He did not do it on his own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. You know, what he was saying ultimately was that even those who were not of the Jewish religion would be gathered together in one, those who were the children of God that were scattered abroad. So this is the Caiaphas that we see in John 18. And as I said, he was absolutely against Christ, but God used this wicked man to prophesy about the sacrificial and the substitutionary death of Christ and how that he would die for the nation. But he He's responsible for the motivation of his heart to say it, but God was able to use that and bless his church with it even many, many centuries later. So while this was happening here, as we move through this narrative, while this was happening to Christ as he was being brought into this preliminary hearing, we might say, we have this account of Simon Peter. There was this other thing going on with Peter. Peter followed at a distance. Doesn't say that in this passage, but it does say that in in the Matthew account in 2658 you don't have to turn there, but I'll just read it for you It says this way, but Peter followed him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end Peter was very interested in the outcome of this of this amazing nights events And so he followed at a distance. He did not want to reveal his affiliation with Christ. He wanted to see the outcome. And in verse 15, it says, and Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now, traditionally, this other disciple is thought to be the author of the book, the author of the Gospel of John, would be the Apostle John. We don't know for sure. But it's traditionally thought so, that it would have been John. And this is a very interesting interaction here. This other disciple, he was acquainted with the high priest. He was known to the high priest, and when he went, he actually followed Jesus into the courtyard through, I assume it would have been a courtyard with a walled courtyard with a gate, and if you wanted to get inside, you had to get past the gatekeeper. And in this account, it was a servant girl who was keeping the door. But John being known to the high priest, if we're gonna use John as this other disciple. Maybe I shouldn't say John, but this other disciple, being known and acquainted with the high priest, follows in with the group that was leading Jesus there. He just followed right in. He was known, he was accepted, and if you think about it, to be let into the courtyard of the most important man in the Jewish faith in the middle of the night, that means that you're fairly well known. You had to be fairly well known to be let in into this courtyard. And so, I believe it would be logical, it would be logical to conclude or to assume that his affiliation with Jesus was also well known. I mean, if he was acquainted to the High Priest, it would be logical to assume the High Priest also know of his affiliation with Christ, and therefore, in a sense, he didn't have any reason to hide and lag behind. It was already known who he was. My affiliation with Jesus is well known. And so he walks right in. And so this disciple, whoever he was, he was in the in-group here. He was inside the courtyard. He thought to do Peter a favor, I believe. And we see that it wasn't a favor, actually. But he thought to do him a favor and he went, verse 16, but Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to her who kept the door and brought Peter in. In other words, he made reference for Peter. He said, hey, I know this man. And she opened the door and let him come in. Now, I think what she asks here is interesting. If you assume that this other disciple was known to be a disciple of Christ, then it's logical to say, well, are you also one of the followers of Christ? You see what she said there? The servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, you're not also one of this man's disciples, are you? She gave him a way out. She almost, it doesn't seem like she was being provocative at all. She was just assuming that if John knew this, or if this other disciple knew him, and he was acquainted and affiliated with Christ, then it would make sense that Peter may also be a disciple then of Christ. And so she asked, you're not one of his disciples also, are you? And he said, no, I'm not. I'm not. And it is here in the Mark passage at the first denial that the cock crowed the first time. I think it shows us even more. Think about it. This was not some intimidating Roman centurion or some Roman soldier who was asking Peter, what are you doing here? No, he was a servant girl who kept the door. He asked him, are you? And he said, no, I'm not. And the rooster crowed. Two more times following the crowing of the rooster, he denied him again. So we see that this is a very This is, you would have to think that when Jesus says, the rooster will crow twice, you will deny me three times. And when he crowed the first time, it should have been enough to break his heart. But it didn't. And I wanna just go back and as we, it may be a little difficult sometimes to bring an application to a narrative passage. But I want to remind you of the confidence, the vehemence that we've seen in Peter's statement to Christ in Mark and in Matthew. And then we remember that as an apostle, we see what he says in his book. In Peter 5, he says, God resists the proud. but gives grace to the humble. And be clothed with humility, he says before that, because he had learned the hard way. He had learned his lesson. He was so confident, so vehement, I don't care if all my peers here deny you and stumble and are offended at you, I will not. And then we see Jesus saying, well, you will. You will be made to stumble. And we just have this picture of he took a little servant girl to bring it out in him. You know, this raw fisherman who thought he was somebody, He needed to be shown up by a little servant girl who just kept the door. And she just simply asked him a question. Are you also one of his? No, I'm not. Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coal stood there for it was cold and they warmed themselves and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. So as I said earlier, you know, The other disciple might have thought he was doing him a favor to get him in out of the cold, to get him up. But he brought him into a place of temptation, didn't he? You know, if you're going to warm yourself at the world's fire, be prepared to stumble. He stood with those who were against, those very ones who arrested Christ. He stood with them and warmed himself at their fire. And when that happens, you are going to subject yourself to temptation here. And that is exactly what occurred. It wasn't long until these spoke of him as well. He says, I am not. And he was now inside and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Now, we see here that in verse 19, the high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple there where the Jews always meet and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask me? Now I believe what was going on here in this interaction with from verse 19 through verse 21 that this man Annas which here it refers to him as the high priest which would have been Caiaphas maybe that they were both there now but we have to remember verse 24 says that Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest in verse 24 so it seems to me like this may be a okay they were referring to Annas as the high priest because he had been the former high priest I have to leave that, I'm not sure how to reconcile that as we look at this. But what Jesus was doing here, remember, they were looking for him to implicate himself. They had no charges, legal charges, against Christ. They brought him in and he asked him about his disciples and his teaching. And Jesus was like, why do you, he was making the point that you, this whole thing is a sham trial. Your law says that there has to be two or three witnesses who bring a charge against me and you are wanting me to implicate myself. You are asking me about these things so that that I might incriminate myself. And that is, I think, why it went sideways in verse 22, where this officer said, are you really going to talk to the high priest this way? And so, Jesus, I believe, was making the point, why don't you have someone out here who's heard me speak, and if they have a problem with that, let them come in and accuse me before you. Instead, you are trying to get me to implicate myself. I think that is what truly is going on here. He says, what I have said, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in public places, in synagogues and in the temple, where those in opposition to me always gathered. There's no reason to think that I was in some way being subversive and endeavoring to be secretive. Not at all. My teaching is entirely open and it was always done in public. So why don't you ask someone who heard me? Why don't you bring them in, let them make an accusation against me and see and then we'll go with that. But this trial, this preliminary hearing that you're bringing against me is a sham. Indeed, he says, they know what I said. And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest like that? He slapped him. He just simply slapped the Lord. Are you going to Are you going to answer in this way? This struck is, in the center column it says, gave Jesus a slap. It was with an open hand. It was not the, It was even almost more insulting to be slapped with the open hand as if to say, you need to learn your place. Do you answer the high priest like that? And Jesus, what did he say in Peter? When he was reviled, he reviled not again. Notice how gently he speaks here. He simply says, in response to his question, do you answer the high priest like that? Well, this same high priest will at some point answer to Jesus. Will he not? For sure he will. We know without a doubt that it's the high priest who will answer to the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered him, if I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil. If I've done wrong, show me where it is. But if I have spoken well, why do you strike me? And then following that interaction, then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. And it was here at Caiaphas then that the Sanhedrin had assembled. And I think this preliminary hearing was an opportunity. Remember, the crowing of the rooster is considered to be somewhere around the 3 AM mark. And so this was Early, early morning. Way early. And the Sanhedrin, it is thought that this was a preliminary hearing that would allow the Sanhedrin, a hundred men, to gather. And then, once they were gathered together, as it says in verse 28, then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. This would have been following, or after, the meeting with the Sanhedrin when they officially tried to pin a charge to Christ. Because, again, you have to go back to the Matthew, Mark, and Luke accounts to fill in this gap. We don't even have anything in John 18 of where Christ is actually before the Sanhedrin. We don't have that part in this narrative. But he was bound in verse 24, still bound. You would have thought that this Annas would by now have surely taken his bonds loose. He was no threat to anyone. Why would you leave him bound? But he left him, sent him bound to his son-in-law, the high priest. And that is where he would then be interrogated again before the Sanhedrin. Now in the meantime, again, Simon Peter stood, and remember, according to the Mark account, the rooster had already crowed once. Peter had already denied him once, the rooster crowed, and you would have thought that the words of Christ surely would have come ringing back to him. And they probably did. I am sure, I am almost sure they would have. So Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. Therefore they said to him, you are not also one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. Then it gets even more sticky. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of Malchus, whose ear Peter cut off, said, now wait a minute, I seen you. I seen you in the garden. I seen when you swung that sword and you cut his ear off. He didn't say all this in the passage, but it seems to me that he's this relative. He says, no, I believe I seen you there. Did I not see you in the garden with him? And so the Lord was just bringing the walls in on Peter. and was continuing to put the pressure on Peter, and Peter crumbled under this pressure. Peter then denied again, and immediately a rooster crowed. This would have been, according to the Mark passage, the second crowing of the rooster, and Peter had denied him three times. And so, just an interesting narrative here, and in other passages, I think all three of the other passages, I'm not sure about Luke, it says that Peter went out and wept bitterly. And we see a difference here in his repentance versus, also we don't see it in the John account about how Judas responded. But Judas went out and killed himself. Peter was brokenhearted. He broke down and wept and he wept Bitterly it's it makes a point of saying and I believe it is three times that he He went out from the company of this courtyard And he was brokenhearted He was brokenhearted when he came home to him how that he had how that he had Denied knowing it says that in another place. It says how he cursed and swore I Never knew him. I don't know him. I don't even know what you're saying well if you don't know what she's saying then why are you so adamant that you don't agree with her I mean You know, he wasn't even making logical sense at this point, where he was, I think in the Matthew account, he was cursing and swearing. I don't even know what you're saying. But we see that he wept bitterly. And I think in closing, I would just like to look at what true repentance looks like in 2 Corinthians 7. I just want to read this as we think about what Peter went through in this narrative where his Lord was arrested, his shepherd was struck, and the sheep are definitely scattered. But we see Peter with such an arrogance before this, such a confidence in himself. And then we see that he was no match for the pressure that comes with identifying with Christ, with being known as a follower of Christ. He was not prepared for the animosity of the world, and what he was seeing Christ go through, being struck, and the fact that he was seeing Christ not fighting back, that Christ was being subjected to these people, and he denied him. He was no match for the enemy. He was no match for the world and for those who are in opposition, who are filled with hatred against Christ. But he Again, I didn't write down which account it is, but after the crowing of the rooster, Jesus looks around, and He looks right at him. And He looks right at him. And that look, whatever it was, broke his heart. We see him weeping bitterly in 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 10 says, For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death." Is that not what Judas had? He had a sorrow, but it produced death. And for Peter, it was a godly sorrow. It was a brokenheartedness. It was a bitter weeping that produced a repentance leading to salvation. that was not to be regretted of. It was something that he could look back and his repentance was something that he was glad that happened. And verse 11, for I observed this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. I want to just point out some of these things that are part of true repentance. What is, what does godly sorrow really look like? 2 Corinthians 7 through 11. What diligence it produced in you. What diligence. Godly sorrow brings a diligence to us. It is a discipline to us. It is meant to train us. What diligence it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves. It is a desire to be cleared of all this wrongdoing. To have it out in the open where it is in the clear. This is what godly sorrow looks like. It is a clearing of ourselves. It is not a denial of what happened. That's the opposite of what's going on here. And I think Peter was very willing to acknowledge that, yes, I did deny my Lord. But there's a clearing of ourselves in godly sorrow, in this repentance. It produces repentance. What indignation. How we are in agreement with what we did. What indignation that we would have done such a thing. What fear what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication. In all things, you prove yourselves to be clear in this matter. This is what godly sorrow looks like, is that it comes with a strong desire. It comes with even a fear. It comes with a zeal. It comes with the desire to be vindicated through confession, through opening of our hearts to one another, and that's what we see here. Peter wept bitterly. He was brokenhearted. Well as we continue in this narrative in the Passion of Christ, we'll be looking at this in John 18, we'll be picking up again in verse 28, where They were now through with the I Might I might see if I can find a little bit more information and we can see it from other accounts but in regards to what he met there at the Sanhedrin, but when we pick up here and John again, they're going to pilot and These are just hours before he will be crucified and we see him being bound that he might lose our bonds. Let's pray. Father, as we look at this narrative of the account of the Lord Jesus being arrested, as it says in Acts, by sinful men who would crucify him, and we see that We see the contrast here in this passage, Father, of Christ and Peter, and help us to find a place, as Peter did, that we might ultimately submit ourselves to your plan, to your sovereign will, and that we would not see ourselves as able to stand on our own, but that we're so dependent, Father, even as we came through the holiday of Independence Day in our nation. Father, we deny that entirely when it comes to our spiritual Since we are not independent, Father, we are dependent upon your grace. We're dependent upon your goodness. We're dependent upon your justice and your kindness toward us. And we just marvel, Father, at your great and good plan that redeemed us from so great a death. So, Father, we pray that you would just be with us as we go from here. In Christ's name we pray, amen.