And Father, as we now come to Your Word. We remember that Your Word is breathed out by the Spirit and that it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. O Lord, apart from Your grace working in us, we have no righteousness. Apart from Your grace working in us, we are just hungry beggars of sinners who don't even realize our greatest need. But we thank You that by Your grace, You have given us life in Christ, and we thank You that by Your grace You feed us and nourish us with Your Word. And so we pray today, O Lord, that You would do that, that the Good Shepherd's voice would be heard, and that Your Word would not return void to You. We ask that You would bless this time, bless the study of Your Word, and strengthen us all for the glory of Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to John 18. We'll be continuing in our study of John this week. Next week we will be looking at Psalm 50 as we continue our study in the Psalms next week. We are in John 18 1-11. One of the more significant dilemmas that you as a Christian will face. One of the arguments that especially skeptics will love to throw and flaunt in your face is what we would refer to as theodicy. Now that's just a 50-cent word that you can throw away for what we call the problem of evil. The problem of evil is simply the fact that evil exists, and I think it's undeniable that evil exists. If somebody denies that evil exists, it's because they are hidden in a cave somewhere, under a rock somewhere, and they have not taken a look at themselves accurately to begin with. But for centuries, this problem, the problem of evil, has been just one of those things that never seems to completely go away. It's one of the arguments that has been used by skeptics and doubters and unbelievers and atheists across the centuries. And the argument is basically this. If God is good, he would desire to eradicate evil. And if God is all-powerful, he would eradicate evil. So the argument then boils down to either God isn't good, or he's not all-powerful, or both. A natural, unregenerate man will look at a book like Job for example, and they'll argue that if the God that we claim to believe in, if that God really does exist, then he should have stepped in to prevent such great evil from coming upon somebody like Job, who the text actually specifically tells us was said to be the most righteous man on the face of the earth in his time. That's why the devil wanted to tempt him. But even Job, when he was afflicted, Even Job thought that he deserved an explanation from God when he had been treated as he viewed unfairly. Now how do you handle this theodicy, this problem of evil? there are a few different ways that the people have gone. Rabbi Harold Kushner, you might have heard of him, he's written several books, but he wrote a book in the nineties called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Now when you hear that title, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, what should be very clear, what should be very obvious from the outset for a person with a biblical worldview, is that Rabbi Kushner starts off with some extremely unbiblical presuppositions. There's only been one good person in all of history, that's Jesus, and bad did happen to him. We're going to be talking about that today actually in our text, but His unbiblical presuppositions absolutely affect his understanding of this issue of the problem of evil. His answer for the problem of evil boils down to the idea that God wants to eradicate evil, that God hates evil, so therefore God's good, but that he can't. So he's not all-powerful. Another unbiblical way of answering this problem of evil, it's kind of a newer answer that's arisen within the lifetime of those of us who are around my age, is a school of thought called open theism. Open theism is essentially the logical conclusion of Arminianism. Open theism teaches that the future is open, that is to say that God does not know the future and that God has not ordered or ordained the future and thus God doesn't know when evil's coming or what kind of evil may come tomorrow. Open theists will say that if God foreknows everything, that's what Orthodox theology says, that God foreknows everything, but an open theist will say, well, if God foreknows absolutely everything, then everything is determined, everything is foreordained, but that can't be true because we have free will, right? Or so they say. Let me just very quickly debunk the idea that you have free will. Because you don't. None of us have free will. If you are a Christian, it starts with this. If you're a Christian, you desire to stop sinning. And if you don't desire to stop sinning, by the way, you're not even a Christian. So let's get that much clearer. If you are a Christian, you desire to stop sinning. You desire to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, just as Jesus commanded, and yet you don't. You and I both know that you and I, and everyone else, we have utterly failed at holding up just that one thing. every nanosecond of our lives. We have failed no matter how strong our desire is. So much for free will. We don't have it. So none of these ideas are supported by the Bible, whether you go with Harold Kushner's idea that God is good but not all-powerful, or if you go with the open theist idea that God isn't sovereign, God doesn't know anything, God hasn't foreknown or foreordained anything, none of these ideas are supported by the Bible. Any view of God that denies His goodness, or denies His all-powerfulness, His omnipotence, or denies His omniscience, the fact that He knows all things, any of these views, these are all views that don't align with the God of Scripture. And the person who holds any of these views does not know the God of Scripture. The Bible maintains that God is good. The Bible also maintains that God is all-powerful, and that God is all-knowing. And yet the Bible also affirms, as do our experiences, that evil absolutely does exist. The biblical answer for the problem of evil is that God is good, God is all-powerful, and evil exists, yes, but God has promised that he will one day eradicate evil. The biblical answer to the problem of evil is that evil does exist, but that while it exists, God uses it without causing it to happen. His glory and for the good of His people. The biblical view affirms that God is sovereign and supreme over all things, over every situation, including situations that include every degree of evil. God is sovereign over evil, and yet evildoers are still responsible for their own actions. As Job declared both to and about God when all was said and done, he said in Job 42 verse 2, he said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. not even one. No purpose of God's could be thwarted. If he was not all-powerful, or if he was not all-knowing, then Job could not have truthfully said that. Or as Peter declared in his sermon at Pentecost to the Jewish religious leaders that Jesus was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. That's from Acts chapter 2 verse 23. So Peter's saying there that it was God's sovereign, ordered, ordained plan and yet the men who crucified Christ were still guilty for their own actions. God is sovereign over evil without causing evil. This is the biblical view of evil and it's the only view. that gives comfort, that gives hope, that gives encouragement to anyone in the midst of suffering. These lower views of God leave you with some really terrifying conclusions if you take them to their logical ends. But this biblical view is the view that's taught throughout Scripture, and it's the view that John has communicated throughout his gospel narrative. As we saw in our previous lesson, one of the themes that has run throughout this book is the sovereignty and the supremacy of Jesus Christ in every single situation that He faced. We noted in our previous lesson that John's account of the events that took place leading up to his crucifixion, that's the part of the text that we're in right now, and that they are noticeably different from the accounts given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those are called the synoptic authors. John doesn't tell us about Christ's prayer in Gethsemane, for example, or of how Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, or of how Simon of Cyrene was recruited to help Jesus carry the cross. He leaves all these details out, John does. But he does include some details that Matthew, Mark, and Luke and supremacy over the soldiers in the garden, which is what we're going to be looking at today. Or he tells us also about Christ's conversation at his trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin. Christ's conversation with Pontius Pilate, Christ putting his mother Mary into John's care. He tells us about the piercing of Jesus' side and Nicodemus' apparent conversion at the cross. Those are all things that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't tell us about, that John does tell us about. Now, don't be bothered by the differences. Some people will say, well those are a lot of discrepancies. Those aren't discrepancies, those are just differences. Listen, it's exactly what we would expect from eyewitness testimony. There was a Harvard Law professor named Simon Greenleaf. Simon Greenleaf literally wrote the book on how to identify Witness who was telling the truth or lying based on how close his testimony was to the testimony of others this guy literally wrote the book he was a skeptic though of Christianity until he examined the four gospel narratives Matthew Mark Luke and John and he examined the differences not discrepancies but the differences between them and upon seeing that they were basically Exactly what we should expect from people who are telling the truth God brought him to faith in Jesus. So the fact that John includes and omits various details that are found in the Synoptic Gospels is not a problem. It's actually something that we would expect from somebody who's telling the truth. So in the passage that we come to today, we'll see Christ's sovereign supremacy on display. We'll see His omniscience. We'll see His omnipotence. We'll see His goodness. All demonstrated in this short passage. And we'll see that Christ was not overcome by evildoers who had conspired against Him and were maybe too great or too strong for Him to overcome or to resist. But what we'll see, what John wants us to see, is that Christ was sovereign. over the evil committed against Him, surrendering His human will to the Father's will. So the point of this passage today is that because God is sovereign over evil, we can know that nothing will come against us, that He does not specifically And thus we can rejoice in our trials, knowing that Christ is with us through them, using our trials and afflictions to refine us, to grow us, and to wean us from the world. All that we might grow in Christ's likeness. Do you think you can go from being a sinner to growing in Christ's likeness without enduring affliction. That difference is so great between where we start and where we end. It must involve affliction. It must involve trials. And praise the Lord that God's sovereign over them. He knows exactly which ones to put us through in order that we may grow in Christ's likeness. So let's start by looking at the first three verses of this chapter. Verses 1 to 3. John continues writing, When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden in which he entered with his disciples. Now Judas also, who was betraying him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. Judas then having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Now we saw in our previous lesson that One of the differences between John's account and the accounts that we find in the synoptic Gospels is that John refers to this as a garden while the synoptic authors all refer to this spot as Gethsemane, which is how we get the title when we put those two things together, the Garden of Gethsemane. But John wanted us to see the contrast between Adam, who failed in a garden, and Christ who triumphed in a garden. But we also see that Judas, who was betraying Christ, chose this place, the Garden of Gethsemane, the place where he knew that Jesus went for prayer and for fellowship with His disciples, but He probably often went there alone as well. He chose this as the place to betray Christ. This would have been a place with just delightful memories of the times that they had come together. And Judas had been there as well, so he knew this place very well. He knew that it was something of a sacred place, not only to Jesus, but to his disciples as well. As I think about this, I'm reminded of some experiences that I've had in life. I got my undergraduate degree at a very small Christian liberal arts college in Southern California, and I use that word Christian to describe that college very lightly. and liberally. I did not go to that college as a Christian, and in fact their classes taught me to doubt and taught me to deny the truths of scripture. But my junior year, a friend of mine invited me to go to church, and that was where and when God saved me. And around that exact time, my university had finished construction on this new chapel. And I would go over to the chapel on the other side of campus regularly. I'd go there to pray. I'd go there to study my Bible. I'd go there to sing the new songs, or songs that were new to me, that I was learning in church. It was a sacred place for me. It was a sacred place and I just have so many good memories, so many sweet memories of the time that I spent in that room in intimate, what felt like intimate fellowship with God, praying and reading His Word and singing. But then in 2013, My family and I decided to pay my old college a visit. We were in Southern California and we decided to go to that old chapel room for a visit and as I stepped foot into this room it took less than a second for me to almost lose my breakfast. I was just revolted. I was so disgusted. The room was adorned with prayer rugs and with incense candles and with icons and with idols for every religion under the sun. On the bookshelves there were a lot of books that were affirming the teachings of every cult and every world religion you could imagine. And on the bottom shelf, on the bottom shelf, there were two Bibles. It sent the message that Christianity was just another religion, and that maybe Christianity didn't deserve to be anything more than just an afterthought compared to all these other things. And as I stood in that room, I broke down in tears. Because I had gone into that room that day expecting it to look exactly the same as it had in the early nineties when God brought me to faith in Christ. But that place, that room, had been completely desecrated and completely defiled. And that's exactly what Judas did to the Garden of Eden when he chose that as the place to commit the single greatest act of evil ever committed. Let's not overlook the fact that Judas had been so close to Christ for so long. He had heard Jesus preach how many times? Countless times. He had seen Jesus heal people. He had even been given temporary power over demons. in his time with Christ. And yet, despite how close he was to Christ, despite all of his experiences, despite all he'd heard, despite all he'd seen, despite all he had been empowered to do, he was nevertheless unsaved. His life, friends, His life is a warning to me and to you and to everyone else, because He reminds us that it is entirely possible for a man to be close to Christ, to sit under the soundest teaching in the history of the world, and to hear the best sermons you've ever heard, to pray regularly, to be surrounded with God's people, and yet, for his heart to remain cold and distant from God, and for us to fail to savingly trust in and believe on Christ for our salvation. That is entirely possible. It's possible for Judas, And it's possible for us, it's possible for us to be so close and yet not have faith in Christ, which of course is the necessary response that God requires from us. James Montgomery Boyce says this, he says, quote, how foolish it is to come that close and yet be lost. How much wiser by contrast to put your faith in that one who is altogether lovely and who willingly died for your salvation. Friends, let that never be said of you. Let it never be said of you that you're comparable to Judas, and that you were so close to Christ, and you heard so many sermons, and you were surrounded by such godly people, and yet you did not believe savingly. The way to avoid that is to examine yourself regularly and yield yourself regularly to the means of grace that God has given. Now, we're not exactly sure what happened to the Garden of Gethsemane, but if you go to holylandtours.com, you'll find that it says that there is an area which tradition identifies as its location. Is there real tradition or the real location or not? I'm not positive, but their website says, quote, the Garden of Gethsemane is the traditional location of the place where Jesus agonized on the night of his arrest and be more true to say that it's where Jesus prevailed and triumphed on the night of his arrest. We've already seen that Jesus prevailed against the devil's temptations. That's what we looked at last week. But the world offered some temptation as well. In this case, it's Judas and a lot of people who come with him. There's going to be the temptation for Jesus to run. Judas didn't come alone, nor did he come with only one or two officers, Roman officials, to arrest Jesus. Rather, Judas arrived on the scene with what John refers to as a cohort Roman soldiers and with officers from the chief priests and the scribes. Now if you're not sure what a cohort is, according to Thayer's Greek lexicon a legion would have been 600 soldiers and a cohort would be 10% of that. So we're talking about 60 weathered, seasoned Roman soldiers plus representatives from the chief priests and the Pharisees. Probably somewhere between 70 and 100 people total. And what we should see, one of the things that we should see here is that they come in the darkness. They come in the darkness. This is another theme that we've seen running throughout the course of John's gospel narrative, that certain things, great acts of evil and instances where faith was lacking, all happen in the darkness. Back in chapter 1, John kicked this theme off by writing this. He said, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And throughout John's gospel, he's showing us literally, physically, that there are times when things happen in literal darkness, in order that we understand the spiritual lesson there, that darkness represents evil. These soldiers, and these priests, and these Pharisees, they are all spiritually in the darkness, and so physically they come in the darkness as well. Christ is the light shining in their midst, and they did not comprehend Him, because as we read back in chapter 3, in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, which also, by the way, took place in the darkness. We read there that men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. Now why on earth? would so many people need to show up to arrest Jesus? There are a lot of different answers that we might arrive at. I think part of it has to do with the previous failures of the religious leaders to have Jesus arrested, because they have tried to have Him arrested or seized before. That's another theme that runs through John's Gospel. Back in chapter 7, verse 30, we saw John tell us that they were seeking to seize Him, to seize Jesus, And no man laid his hand on him, because his hour had not yet come." In verse 32 we read, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. Then we read in verse 44, some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. In chapter 10, again, Jesus revealed Himself to be the Good Shepherd of whom Ezekiel foretold, and He claimed to be one with the Father. And the response of the religious leaders was to attempt once again to seize Him. But we read in chapter 10, verse 39, Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp. The religious leaders have tried over and over again to seize him, to arrest him. So this time it makes sense, maybe in their minds, that they would bring 60 Roman soldiers with them to get the job done. Maybe that's why they brought so many. Or maybe it was because they knew that Jesus was very popular among the masses. That's another answer that you'll find in commentaries. And that they wanted, therefore, to have enforcements in case there was some kind of uprising among the people to keep order. Whatever the case may be, they came to do their work in the darkness. John is very specific about telling us that. And they came with lanterns and torches and swords, weapons. Now Passover always happened on a full moon. So the fact that they brought these lanterns and these torches indicates that they probably expected to have to look for him. That he was going to run and hide in a dark place. But Jesus did not run. Jesus did not hide. He didn't try to get away from the Father's will. That's what Adam did after his sin, right? He tried to hide himself. But Jesus did not try to hide himself from anyone. as we're about to see, they didn't need their torches, they didn't need their lanterns, and Jesus willingly surrendered to them. And unless He did willingly surrender to them, their weapons were also going to be utterly useless against Him. Now, family, you've got to know that no weapon that's ever raised against God is going to prevail. Bring whatever you want, whatever argument, whatever weapon you want against God, it will fail. People in our day aren't bringing lanterns and torches. Rather, they'll claim to be bringing the light of reason, or they'll claim to be bringing progress. But against God, whatever is brought against Him will be rendered useless. What does Psalm 2 tell us about God when the nations are conspiring against Him? tells us that He scoffs at them, that He laughs at their plans and their schemes against Him, because they're pointless, because they're meaningless, they're futile. And as we're about to see, Christ is sovereign over evil. He's even sovereign over the evil that would take place in His own arrest. And therefore, friends, we can know that nothing can come against us that He does not permit. And thus we can rejoice in our trials, knowing that Christ is with us through them, using them to refine us, to grow us, and to wean us from the world. Let's continue in verses 4 to 6. So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, 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, the Synoptic authors, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all tell us that Judas was the one who was leading the arresting party. John just says that he was with them, but he was actually leading them. And you gotta think, when you think of Judas and what he's doing, how he's trying to appease unregenerate men, how he himself is unregenerate, you have to think, What a stupidly prideful feeling that must have been for Judas to lead a whole Roman cohort to Jesus. These were men who had seen plenty of action on battlefields. They were warriors. They were respected as warriors. They were the kinds of guys that you would not want to look at funny. They were the kind of guys you wouldn't want to mess with. And here they are following Judas. It's really a picture of how foolish it is to trade faithfulness unto God for approval and a high standing among men. We also know that Judas identified Jesus with a kiss, although John doesn't give us that detail. It was according to Matthew's testimony. But John wants us to focus our attention on Jesus and not on Judas. John wants us to see Christ's sovereign supremacy in every situation including this one. He wants us to see that Jesus will not be taken and indeed cannot be taken against his will. So John tells us how Jesus responds to the arrival of these battle-tested warriors, knowing what was coming. How would he know what's coming? Because he's God, and God knows all things, and God knows all things because God ordains all things. He foreknows the future, not because he looks down the corridor of time. He does not learn. If He learns, He can improve. And if He can improve, He's not God. No, He knows all things in the future because He has ordained them. He foresees them because He ordains them. So, Jesus is not going to be taken against His will. And He asks them, Whom do you seek? Simple question. Whom do you seek? And when they answer, Jesus of Nazareth, we see that Jesus responds by declaring, I am he. Now, you have your Bibles open? Look down at your Bibles for a second. If you have your Bibles open, look down at this text, specifically at verse five. The word he in your Bible, where he says, I am he, the word he should be in italics. or should have some kind of special designation which indicates that the word he has actually been inserted there by translators to make translation easier. But if we were reading this in the original Greek, we would see that Jesus' response is simply to say, I am. The Greek words are Ego Emi. Ego Emi is the great I am declaration that we've seen Jesus use to identify himself as God incarnate on so many previous occasions. Back in chapter 6 verse 35 he said I am the bread of life. In chapter 8, verse 12, he said, I am the light of the world. In chapter 14, verse 6, he declared of himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And in chapter 15, verse 1, he said, I am the true vine. Ego eimi, in every one of these instances. And in this case, simply ego eimi, period. I am. As we see Jesus use these words once again, we're reminded that the name of God, Jehovah, which was revealed to Moses at the burning bush, literally means I am that I am. And when the Greeks translated the Old Testament Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek, they translated those words, ego eimi. So, is this significant that he uses those words? Absolutely. And just in case you do miss the significance of those words, you can't miss what happens when Jesus identifies Himself with them. John tells us that as soon as those words departed from his mouth, the entire arresting party drew back and fell to the ground. Now, these are battle-tested warriors. They don't just all of a sudden lose their balance and fall down. But let's remember what John told us in chapter 1. Once again, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. What's clear here in chapter 18 is that they don't recognize Jesus, first of all. They don't identify Jesus as Jesus when He comes up to them, which is why they have to say, that's who we're looking for. It would have made a lot more sense if they did recognize Him when He said, whom do you seek? For them to say, you. We're looking for you. So what's clear here is that they don't recognize Jesus despite the fact that there is a full moon and despite the fact that they've got torches and lanterns. Was it really that dark? Or was this a picture of the light shining in the darkness, and the darkness not comprehending it? See if they had recognized them, they would have said we're looking for you. So first they appear to be supernaturally blinded. A picture of spiritual blindness perhaps. And then Jesus says, I am. And when he utters those words they fall to the ground. Alexander McLaren in his commentary, he likens this, he likens their falling to the ground. to the Mount of Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John caught just a glimpse of Christ's glory. He writes in his commentary, Alexander McLaren writes in his commentary, quote, I am inclined to think that here as there, there was for a moment a little rending of the veil of his flesh. and an emission of some flash of the brightness that always tabernacled within him that therefore just as Isaiah when he saw the king in his glory said woe is me for I am undone when he said I am he there was something that made them feel this is one before whom violence cowers abashed and in whose presence impurity has to hide its face." End quote. These mighty, valiant, historically respected warriors could not even stand before Christ unless He allowed them to. And in this case, He doesn't. He doesn't. And friends, neither can anybody else. They're falling to the ground as Jesus exerting His sovereign supremacy over them, showing them just a glimpse of His sovereign supremacy, of His power. He's sovereign, and He is supreme, even over His own arrest. And He wants to make that very clear. He didn't go to the cross begrudgingly. He didn't go to the cross against His will. He wasn't arrested because He didn't have the ability to resist or escape. He could have escaped. He could have slain a million cohorts of Roman soldiers. And friends, here's the thing, when you consider this, If you have refused to believe on Christ savingly, you must realize that one day you will do no better than these Roman soldiers when you stand before Christ in judgment. If you will not bow the knee before Him out of faith and love for Him, and do so willingly, and do so joyfully, then you must know that one day you will stand before Him and you will be compelled to bow the knee before Him against your will by the horrors of complete despair that you have brought upon yourself through your own stubborn unbelief. One day every knee will bow before Him. And one day every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. And if you will not do this with your will, you will be compelled to do it against your will. So what are you waiting for? Friend, the same forces that were at work in the Garden of Gethsemane are still working today, and we need to know this as Christians. They sought to undo Christ, and they will seek to undo you. There's still this conflict between light and darkness, and like the disciples, we're going to be tempted to cower and to take cover. But what we must see here is that Christ is completely sovereign and supreme over the powers of darkness. They can't lay a hand on you apart from His sovereign will. They cannot even look at you if it's not His will. Should persecution, flame, and rage, rage and flame still trust in your Redeemer's name? In fiery trials you shall see that as your days your strength shall be. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God has ordered your life? Do you believe that God is sovereign over the powers of darkness that you face over the trials and the afflictions that you face? Do you believe that? Do you believe it enough to live by it? and to find joy in the midst of a trial, which is what James tells us to do. And to the natural man, that seems like such a stupid thing to say, to count your trials joyfully. Why can you do that? James goes on to tell us, because you'll grow more in Christ's likeness. That's why God has ordered your trials. That's why God has ordered your afflictions. The Heidelberg Catechism. We did the Heidelberg Catechism once upon a time here. for a responsive catechism reading. But it starts out with this question, and this is one of the most beautiful things a person has ever written. The question, the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism is, what is your only comfort in life and death? Not my own. but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. That's the answer to what is your only hope in life and death, your only comfort in life and death. Please note, friends, by the way, that it didn't ask what is our greatest comfort in life and death. No, the question is what is your only Comfort. And the answer is Christ. Christ is our only comfort in life and death. And this is a truth for us to embrace. It's a truth for us to live by. Christ is sovereign. Christ is supreme over evil. The battle between light and darkness has already been won. And for that reason, we can rejoice in faith and devotion whenever trials do come, knowing that God is sovereign even over whatever circumstance we might face. Consider the care that Jesus has for his sheep as we continue. Let's continue by looking at verses 7 to verse 11 here in our text. Therefore He again asked them, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus answered, I told you that I am He, 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. Simon Peter then, having drawn a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear, and the slave's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put the sword into the sheath, the cup which the Father has given me. Shall I not drink it? Standing over these soldiers who have been forced to the ground, he lets them up, and he says again to them, Whom do you seek? What a shame that they had not sought Him earlier. What a shame that they had not sought Him just because of who He is. Jesus of Nazareth, they replied again. He says, I told you that I am He, so if you seek me, let these go their way. He's basically saying, let my people go. Let my people go. That is a royal command that once again brings us back to the book of Exodus where God commands Pharaoh to let his people go in the book of Exodus. This is not a request. Jesus isn't requesting that they let his disciples go. This is a command. It's a command, and it's with this command that we can be sure that Jesus has the sovereign authority to protect his people. It seems as though the arresting party had not only come to arrest Jesus, but to arrest anyone and everyone, including his disciples who were affiliated with him. And by the way, this is supported by Mark's testimony. Mark tells us of a young man who had come out to see the commotion, dressed only in a linen cloth. Mark tells us this in Mark chapter 14 verses 51 and 52. He says, quote, A young man was following him, was following Jesus, 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, why did that boy escape? Because when we harmonize the gospel narratives, we see that he escaped, it appears to be because Jesus had instructed the Roman cohort to let his people go. Mark himself, Mark's the only one who gives us that detail. How would he have gotten that? How would he have known? The answer that people have drawn through the centuries is that that was probably Mark. But John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, notes that Jesus commanded this, to fulfill the word which he spoke, of those whom you have given me I lost not one. Now of course this is a reference to what Jesus had said in chapter 6 verse 39, and he said similar things several times throughout John's gospel. And this isn't to say that Jesus' promise is to physically protect us. Rather, John is saying that what happened physically is a picture of what Jesus, and only Jesus, will do for his people spiritually. Richard Phillips notes this in his commentary. He says, John sees Jesus' action in the garden as a proof, an example of his greater protection over our eternal destinies. End quote. So having said this, however, Simon Peter's response is not to go in peace even though they're going to let him go. Simon Peter's response was to act out in the flesh and to draw the sword, cutting off the right ear of the high priest's slave. Now we're to see that this is not the right response from Peter. Jesus had already ensured their safety. What need was there to draw a sword or to draw a dagger and to fight? Peter wouldn't stand a chance against these guys. He's a fisherman. He's not a warrior. He might have been big and strong. He might have been brave, stupidly brave, but he couldn't have taken 60 of these guys, not even a chance. The fact that they didn't pounce on him immediately, by the way, is further proof of Christ's sovereign supremacy over evil. There is absolutely no logical explanation for why Peter was allowed to breathe another breath after that outburst. Other than that, Jesus protected him by restraining the cohort supernaturally. And of course he demonstrates his power once again by healing the ear of this slave. But why does Jesus now turn to Peter and rebuke him? I think there are a couple reasons, aside from the fact that Peter would have just already insured, shouldn't have acted out. But first of all, a sword is a weapon of this world, and Christ's kingdom is not of this world. There's a collision of kingdoms going on here, yes, but Christ's kingdom doesn't fight with physical weapons. His kingdom isn't a physical kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom. As such, we don't go to battle with physical weapons. Paul writes this from Ephesians chapter 6. He says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, the application of this truth then, therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. He goes on to say, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. which is the Word of God. So I think that's the first reason that Jesus rebukes Peter here. But secondly, and probably more significantly, Jesus rebuked Peter because Jesus was 100% surrendered, 100% committed to doing the Father's will. And Peter could only get in the way by acting out in the flesh like this. The better weapon for Peter to have drawn was prayer, which is a far more powerful weapon than a sword or dagger any day, anyway. Jesus says to Peter, put the sword into the sheath, the cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it? What cup is he talking about? The cup that he's referring to is the cup of God's judgment. The cup of God's wrath against the sin of Jesus' people. That's one of only two cups that Scripture tells us about. There are two cups that we see reference to in Scripture. God's Word tells us about the cup that Christ desired to have pass from Him. That's the cup of God's wrath against His people. But Scripture also tells us about the cup of salvation, which we read of when the psalmist writes, I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Friends, every single one of us, every single person who has ever lived, will drink from one of those two cups, from either the cup of God's wrath or the cup of His salvation. Those who drink from the cup of salvation will do so only by God's grace, and it's only given to them, it's only placed in their hands, because Jesus drank the full cup of wrath that they were due as a result of their sin. Jesus drank the cup of wrath that we deserved, down to the last drop, without any grace, so that we would be free to drink from the cup of salvation without any wrath. to reject Jesus, to refuse to believe on Him savingly, is to embrace this cup of God's wrath. Without Christ, you will drink this cup of God's wrath and personal torment forever. But if Christ drank that cup for you, then what remains for you is the cup of God's salvation, which is received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Because Christ is sovereign over evil, we can know and we can live in light of the fact that nothing can ever come against us. that He hasn't ordered, and that He hasn't permitted, that He hasn't ordained. And therefore when trials come, when afflictions come, we can be confident that it is God's will. in order to grow us in Christ's likeness, and therefore we can rejoice in our trials, knowing that Christ is for us, knowing that Christ is with us, and that he's using our trials and using our afflictions. Indeed, he's using every circumstance we face in life to refine us, to grow us, to wean us from the world, and to grow us in Christ's likeness, all for His glory and for our good. Let's pray. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you for the events that transpired in the Garden of Gethsemane, the great evil, the greatest evil ever committed, and the way that you used it for good. Like Job, all we can do is say, nothing can thwart your plans and purposes. All we can do is say, there's no God like you. Nothing can stand in your way, and nobody can question who you are. Nobody can question your goodness. Nobody can question your power. Nobody can question your omniscience. All we can do is be in awe, and live our lives in light of who you are. God, we pray that you would help us to remember and live in light of these glorious attributes that we see on display in the garden. We thank you that you are a God who knows all. You know our sin. You know our sin better than we do, and yet you sent your Son to bear the wrath that we deserved and to drink the cup that we should have drank, the cup of wrath. but in its place you've given us the cup of salvation in Christ. Help us to drink from it joyfully. Help us to live our lives in light of that truth, confidently, in order that Christ may be glorified in our lives and that we may be more conformed to His image. We pray these things in His name. Amen.