Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, if we haven't met, my name is Dean Anon here and I am the discipled pastor here at Village Church of Bartlett. And if please, if we haven't met, I always say this and every once in a while I get to meet new people, but if you're new here today or if we haven't got to meet yet, I'm gonna be right down here afterwards. I'd love to get to know who you are. So we have been the last few weeks in John chapter 17, that's where we were and we were in the high priestly prayer. We heard that already. And what Jesus was doing was he was preparing his disciples for what was about to happen, for what was about to happen here in the next several hours where Jesus is about to go to the cross, there will be the glorious resurrection and there will be a mission field for the disciples to continue on.
Speaker 1 00:00:47 That was 17 as Jesus prepared his disciples. But today we're gonna be in John chapter 18 about the first 27 verses or so. And what we're doing now is we're going on a downward slope and we're going about a hundred miles an hour to the death story of Jesus Christ. It's almost like a bomb went off and things are scattered everywhere, but Jesus has everything in control. John wants us to know that so many different people we're seeing and so many things are happening so dramatic in John 18. And so through this part of the story, as Jesus moves towards a cross, we're gonna see examples of courage and we're gonna see an example of fear and we're gonna examine both of those. So Psalm 31 24 says this, be strong and let your heart take courage. All you who wait for the Lord. A question that I have for us that'll put on the screen that we're gonna, uh, be thinking through is this, what does it take to live with courage and not fear?
Speaker 1 00:01:50 What I'm not talking about is the kind of courage when you're, or the kind of fear when you're standing in the middle of the road and a car is coming at you. No, that's probably good fear, right? Run, get out of the way please every time. Don't you stand there and say, I can no get outta the way every time. I'm also not talking about the fear of God. The fear of God is something that is good. It's a proper respect, it's a proper motivation to love and to worship him. That's the fear of God. No, what I'm talking about is the kind of fear where we have anxiety and we worry too much and maybe over people or maybe over circumstances that's not good for us. Has anybody ever lost a job before? I know I have <laugh>. You ever have questions go through your mind when you're in that state?
Speaker 1 00:02:34 Maybe it's fear like questions. God, how long will I have to wait? Uh, what are we gonna do with the finances? God, in this, you know, uh, teenagers, children, if you have parents or grandparents who have lost their jobs, you want to pray for them, please pray it's hard. It could be a time of fear. Pray for them. Well, the big idea today is this. We're, we're gonna come back to this a few times. You can, can trust Jesus his plan, his plan and say, yes, I am His and be faithful to him in all circumstances no matter what. Uh, to get us started, we have a map up here and it's the garden of Yosemite. Now you'll see a little blip just off about the middle, little bit off to the right, to the east of Jerusalem. You'll see the temple there about in the middle and just off to the east over the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem.
Speaker 1 00:03:26 On the famous slopes of the Mount of Olives is this garden. Now it's probably walled. Pretty famous. It was really nice. It was an olive orchard. Certainly it had an olive press in that day to squeeze, um, the oil from olives. I love olives, don't I? I just, I love, I'm so sorry I had to bring one food thing in today. Um, the Garden of Yosemite drives, it's, it's it's name really from both Hebrew and Aramaic. It's the words for oil press really put together. This is where John 18 starts and the gospel of Matthew and Mark and others go into some more details of what happens here in the garden, the agonizing prayers of Jesus. If you wanna read more about that later, later, and first thing I want to turn to though is this. And this is just how fascinating John 18 is.
Speaker 1 00:04:17 How fascinating the Bible is. Literally, literally speaking if I said that right, <laugh>, because God doesn't just give us and certainly doesn't do this in John 18. He doesn't just give us 10 bullet points of theology, right? That'd be kinda interesting, wouldn't it as Christians that the word of God was just filled with bullet points of theology. But of course God would follow up if he did it this way with 10 bullet points of application, right? That's what we do. Theology, what does it mean in our lives? What do we do now? God, how do we know you? Love you, worship you and live our lives out for you? He doesn't do that. Instead, what he does is he uses stories. He uses stories. One because um, he uses his biographers. Those like John for example, these are ancient biographies. We're actually reading ancient biographies when we think of the gospels.
Speaker 1 00:05:04 But we know that the Holy Spirit of God has carried along. The Bible says these writers to give us his true word. It's amazing. He reaches the first century readers with these biographers and he reaches us today these great stories. Second, these so stories sometimes are called narratives, but they're used to capture our hearts, to pull us in, to put us with our imagination on the edge of our seats. And then God has us and then he teaches our soul in that moment. It's another thing he does with stories and also what we see in chapter 18 certainly is this drama, the depth, the changes, the movements back and forth between scenes. If you read the entire chapter, I have a list here of the people and here's the people we'll be running into Jesus, his disciples, but also John and Peter, especially Judas, a band of soldiers, about 600 officers from the chief priest, Pharisees, this man named Melka who is a high priest servant, an anis who's a former high priest and father-in-law of Caiaphas, who's the current high priest and a servant girl.
Speaker 1 00:06:09 And what kind of places? The places the brook a Kidron right there at the Kidron Valley going over towards the garden of Gosei. There's another place, Jewish high priest residents were gonna be there. And if you read the rest of John 18, you'll see the Roman Governor's headquarters. But fourth, with stories, God makes 'em understandable. Isn't that great? You could be reading these stories to a child and a child can understand these stories, but the point of all this is the beauty. The beauty of this fascinating literature, his very words, his very revelation of himself is so beautiful that I pray for us as a people with our neighbors or with children in village, kids wherever we are, that we will give the life and the spirit and the power to the word that it deserves because it alone can stand. It doesn't need us, but let's give it its due and see the beauty in it as we tell others and our friends about the stories of Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:07:12 So we go across the Kidron Valley, outside the city to the garden of Yosemite, we we begin to get into the darkest part of Jesus' life. Verse one, some of your bibles might say, and you can turn on your Bibles if you have an app or maybe you can turn to it John 18. Some of the Bibles at the top there have a little header for this section and it usually says something like the betrayal and arrest of Jesus. But how about I change that today, that title to the divine display of courage and control. Verse one says this and we have it on the screen. When Jesus had spoken these words, this is again after the high priestly prayer, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron where there was a garden. This is the garden of Yosemite which he and his disciples entered.
Speaker 1 00:08:01 Now Judas who betrayed him also knew the place for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees went there with lanterns and torches and weapons, first four. Then Jesus knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? This takes courage for Jesus what he's doing going into this garden. How so? Well, the first thing might just be that it rings of history. Possibly Jesus may have been thinking in his mind that a while back, his ancestor, king David was going across this same brook kid run to this same area, the Mount of Olives. And he, king David was betrayed by one of his closest associates and now this is about to happen to him too. Same deal. Second thing is Jesus chose to go to a public place.
Speaker 1 00:09:02 He could have went somewhere else, right? Bethany to see Martha, to see uh, Mary and Lazarus, his friends know he chose to came here to one of his favorite spots, a spot where he had been many times to rest, to pray. And guess who knew this? Pretty much anybody who knew Jesus, Judas for sure would know this. And yet this is where Jesus is going to this public place. Why? Because this was his plan and it was his time and it was his hour to die. The willing sacrifice of himself, the lamb of God. No more would there be actual in any need for the hundreds of thousands of sacrificed lambs at the Passover that could be done away with.
Speaker 1 00:09:48 You can see in the other gospels if you want more of the agony of Jesus and this time in the prayers that he's going through and all of that. That's not what John records today because John was written a little later probably that's probably why John didn't include it. The other gospels have all of that. But John's point here in when he writes this section of what's happening in the garden is this the resolve and the courage of the son of God that goes to the cross. The king who willingly gives his life. Nobody takes it away from him, nobody takes his life, he just gives it willingly. This is the divine, courageous and in control. King scholars make a big deal of this sometime the the part about the garden cuz they like to go back to the first garden, the garden of Eden where all blew up where the first Adam sinned and destroyed fellowship between all mankind and God.
Speaker 1 00:10:46 And yet now here comes what Paul calls in the Bible sometimes calls a second Adam, Jesus Christ coming to restore the beginning of the journey here in the garden towards the cross. This is where it starts. The restoration of fellowship in this garden of Yosemite. This isn't the garden of Eden, this is the garden of Gosei. But something else in verse four, you see Jesus' ver uh, courage here. It says He, in my translation it says the words he came forward and yours it might say He went out, what did he come forward to and come out or went out to Verse three is what he came out to. It says the band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, he went out, uh, that went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. This is what he's stepping out into in front of his own disciples.
Speaker 1 00:11:34 There's about 600 Roman soldiers here. That's what a cohort usually was, usually about that number with weapons. These are weaponized men and he steps out there with the chief priester out there. Why did they have weapons? Why did they have torches? Because they probably assume Jesus sits at night, he's gonna try to flee. So they need torches to try to find Jesus as he. He runs away. They think weapons. Why? He had a lot of uh, followers. Perhaps they would try to defend him. They thought they would have to fight. But another reason that they brought these weapons and torches was because they knew the power of Jesus. Most of these people have heard all the stories. Some had even seen his miraculous power. They knew Jesus was a force to be reckoned with and they were ready or so they thought. But isn't it interesting how this, this kind of unbelief, even in the midst of all this proof of who Jesus is, even according to their Old Testament, sorry, their Hebrew scripture, our Old Testament, they knew if they were to think and they were to believe that this is the son of God.
Speaker 1 00:12:40 It isn't interesting sometimes how ignorant unbelief can be and how evil it can be even though he proved who he was. But this came forward in verse four again, this came forward or went out again. What did he come out to? He came out to this knowing everything. He came out to the truth knowing what would happen to him. He stepped out into this. He stepped out into the agony. He stepped out into what he knows will be the cross. He's stepping out to receiving the full wrath of God that will fall on him. Something I can't describe, I don't know how to even describe that idea of taking that on. None of us could do it, but he took on the entire wrath of God, absorbed it all and he stepped out in front of his disciples. He didn't stay behind. He went out to these men, this band coming after him.
Speaker 1 00:13:28 He didn't hide. He came forward showing real courage. Let me move from divine courage over to divine control. If we've moved to verse five, what's important here and John wants us to see Jesus is not a victim. Now, when I say victim, what I'm talking about is the definition of a victim by someone who has been harmed or someone who has been hurt by someone else or something else that is in power over or control over you. That's almost ridiculous. Nobody has power over Jesus and nobody has control over Jesus. So by this definition, no Jesus wants, uh, John wants us to know Jesus is not a victim. He's nobody's victim. Yet Jesus knows anguish, he knows agony, he knows pain, he knows suffering, he knows all of that and he sees yours.
Speaker 1 00:14:28 Verse five says this, they answered him Jesus of Nazareth. So, so they're saying, yes, we're looking for Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said to them, he says these words, he says, I am he and Judas who betrayed him was standing with them In verse six when Jesus said to them, I am he, John wants us to know this, they drew back. This is the band. This could be close to about a thousand people by this time with all the soldiers and the other officials with a lot of them could have been some others. They picked up along the way, perhaps close with them, they fell to the ground when he said, I am he now, they literally fell to the ground, but literally in the English, just to be clear here in the Greek, the he isn't there. What he's really saying is, I am, and John wants us to know this because this same self-identification of deity that Jesus used of himself was in chapter four, chapter six, chapter eight.
Speaker 1 00:15:24 And here again Jesus is saying I am. It is mirroring the same type of statement of Im Yahweh God that God gave to Moses in Exodus chapter three. So they're God, Yahweh, God, our God, Yahweh God is right there standing in front of him and he says, I am and this divine displays too much for them and they fall back to the ground. So who's in control? The right Sunday school answer is Jesus <laugh>. Jesus is in control. Again, he's in control. But what's interesting here is Jesus' from the text, if you move on his motives, what I think is happening is not this idea that, hey, look at me. I don't think he's just flashing his power. Actually, if he flashed his power, they will all disintegrate. He gives them a divine taste. But there's there's a motive here. There's something behind him saying these words and them falling down. Look at verse seven. So he asked them again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, verse eight, Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. So if you seek me, let these men go.
Speaker 1 00:16:43 Interesting. I already said he displayed this power over them certainly, but I think there's three reasons why he did this. When he said I am the first would be to set things straight. I already talked about this. He's making it clear he is not a victim. Second thing I think here is happening is to protect his disciples. He's the shepherd. He wants them to know that I'm protecting you. I'm securing you. You are mine. Verse eight where it says, let these men go. He's actually, this is an imperative, meaning this is a direct command to these arresting, weaponized band of people. He's, here's what he's not doing. He's not saying shalom. He's not saying, let's make a deal. Leave my disciples here, let them alone. Please take me instead I'll be the sacrifice today. No, it's not what he's saying at all. He's saying you will not arrest them.
Speaker 1 00:17:43 That's what he's telling them. Why? Because it wasn't their time to die. It was his time to die. They had more work to do on this earth. They had a lot more work to do in Jesus' name. Jesus is telling them, you will not arrest them. He displayed his power. I think this was one of the other motives we see in the scripture here, but isn't that comforting? Think about this. Isn't it comforting to know that Jesus in control whatever your darkest hour is, you can't, there's not time that can be taken from you. There's not your life, even your life cannot be taken from you if you are a follower of Christ. All of that is in his plan. All of that is in his hand. It doesn't matter what you're going through, he sees you. Verse nine
Speaker 1 00:18:32 Says this, we have it on the screen. This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of whom you gave me. I have lost not one. Do you see that there's even more happening here where it says this was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. What is this third reason of him saying these words I am is so that the scripture might be fulfilled. Now back in John chapter 17, verse 12, the high priestly prayer, I'll read it for you. Here's what Jesus said just a little bit earlier. He's saying this now, he's praying to the Father, he's saying this to the Father and not one of them, meaning his 11 has been lost except the son of destruction who is Judas, who is never really lost. Judas was never part of the believing band of brothers to begin with. And then it says that the scripture might be fulfilled. This is also back in John chapter six. What am I saying? What I'm saying is that back in John chapter six, Jesus made a promise. John chapter six, verse 39, a promise that he would take care and protect and shepherd his disciples. No one's gonna take them from him. And so he's living that out here with that power of display, protecting and shepherding for sure. But also this is so that the scripture will be fulfilled. That's interesting.
Speaker 1 00:19:58 The scripture will be fulfilled. That's saying John wants the early church to know that if you've been in church a long time, you probably already know all this by now, the very words of Jesus are God's words. Therefore, scripture
Speaker 1 00:20:16 Moron, divine courage. There's so much in here I just wanna pull out on courage and I wanna pull out so many things and talk about what J Jesus does. Maybe just one or two more things on courage. Anyways, when you go all the way to the end towards verse 12, you're gonna see that Jesus is bound up, he's being arrested and just before you get there, Peter cuts off a man's ear. Peter promised earlier that he would die for Jesus. So he makes a bold move here, a little bit of foolish move because he has one sword against at least 600 swords, if not more. And he tries to cut off the head of a man named Melka. He was a high uh, priest's servant, but he misses, he cuts off the ear and later we learn that uh, Luke tells us that Jesus healed that man's ear and it seems like Peter might be a better fisherman than a swordsman.
Speaker 1 00:21:11 Seemed to be a bit of a foolish thing he would do. But the bigger issue here is it was a mistake and why was it a mistake? Why is it a mistake that Peter did this? You know, you kind of wanna commend him, right, for his loyalty. I mean he's courage in some ways for sure, but the big mistake here is that he thought this Jesus needed defending. No, the facts in the garden are this the facts in the garden. We have a slide for this, that Jesus is in complete control always and that the plan is Jesus will die. Peter has it backwards here. Peter thinks that he needs to be the savior of the Savior and not the servant of the Savior. And Christians are called to be servants of the Savior and not the savior of the Savior. Frankly, and I'll get to this point in a minute, there's more to this, but we don't make good saviors. You friends, you teenagers, you can't fix your parents, adults, you can't give your faith. You want to. You want them to have your faith, but you can't give them your faith, your children or anyone else in relationships. People make choices. We can't fix them. So what's our role?
Speaker 1 00:22:34 Our role is to love people. It's to love people the way Jesus loved people and to point them to the Savior who is the savior and to point them to Jesus in love. Always introduce them to Jesus and something else. Here's another thing. That's our role, and Peter records this later after he's grown a bit in one Peter chapter three verse 15, what else is our role? It's this always be Peter's writing. Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. Maybe you remember how we're supposed to do that with gentleness and respect. So what are we to do? We're besides pointing people with love to who Jesus is, we're to give the evidence of scripture. So that means we need to know our Bible so we can give the evidence of scripture that's there for the hope we have in us.
Speaker 1 00:23:32 That's number one too, is who? Who do we give that to it? Well, we can't really take, it doesn't work. Take the Bible and try to shove it in somebody's mouth. It does not work. <laugh> we're to give it to whoever's curious. Maybe whoever will ask that verse says in one Peter three 15, but also how do we do it with gentleness and respect? Every time if you find yourself in a conversation, it gets heated and you're a little bit snippy, stop follower of Christ, stop, pray, stop. Ask for it. Ask, just say help. That's my favorite prayer. It's always been my favorite. Prayer. Help something. That's all I can get out.
Speaker 1 00:24:11 We defend our faith. Jesus defends himself. He didn't need Peter in that moment. It wasn't the plan. Verse 11 in verse 11, we see Jesus is speaking again. It seems like Jesus is taking back control of the situation, but he's always had control. But he says these words to Peter in verse 11. It says, so Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? It's a rhetorical question. Jesus wasn't looking for Peter to answer. It might have been funny if you would've answered, but Jesus is the rhetorical question. He wants Peter to stop and think. Think Peter, what have I been saying? Especially as of late, I'm going to die. This is my plan. Think about it. I'm going to do the father's will Peter, willingly. I want this to happen. It's going to happen.
Speaker 1 00:25:08 I'm embracing it. It's time for you to embrace it. The cup, the cup's just a figure of speech. The metaphor and the and the Old Testament, the cup was used regularly for sometimes for blessing, but more often it was a cup of the wrath of God against sin. That's the cup that Jesus has taken the wrath of God against sin. Specifically though, if we think of Jesus, what we know of Jesus, what we know from the gospels is this means for him then going to the cross, being hung on the cross, being nailed before that, being tortured all of that and then taking the full wrath of God in our place. That's courage from before. As a reminder, I said our, our big idea today was this, you can trust Jesus. His plan again, his plan, we can trust and we can say, yes, I am his in all circumstances and be faithful to him.
Speaker 1 00:26:10 Well now the whole scene is shifting. It's moving. It's going from the garden back over the kidron or the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem now with Peter certainly and probably the Apostle John and tow, it seems the other ones have scattered by now and he's going to be interrogated by someone named Anis. We'll be skipping over Peter's denial for now of Jesus, but we'll come back to it. It's fascinating how the book of John plays out in chapter 18 between these different scenes of the interrogations and then Peter's denial and so on back and forth. Verse 13, verse 13 talk and 14, talk about two characters and if you're not familiar with them, I'll just lay 'em out, who they're really quick. Anis Anis, he is the former high priest, but he still called the high priest by many way because he wielded a lot of power.
Speaker 1 00:27:04 That's Anis. Caiaphas is a son-in-law. He's the current high priest. Um, apparently not as well respected, but that's Caiaphas. And John only mentions or at least goes into the TER interrogation by Anis, not of Caiaphas. He just barely mentions Caiaphas. But why does he mention Caiaphas? You know the, the other gospels spend a lot of time about the trial under Caiaphas and all that happened there. John doesn't do that but, but still we have a slide here that talks about John chapter 18 and this is about John writing about Caiaphas and it says that one man, meaning Jesus should die for the people. What is John talking about? He's referring to back in John chapter 11, verse 50, where Caiaphas is speaking the last verse on the screen up there back in chapter 11. That's Caiaphas speaking. The Caiaphas is saying this, Caiaphas is saying back then earlier on that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.
Speaker 1 00:28:11 This is one of the reasons that John wants us to see or at least mentions Caiaphas humanly speaking. John wants us to know right now that Caiaphas, who's a current high priest, already has decided in his own heart, and by the way, he probably chaired the Sanhedrin, which is about 71 Pharisees or 71 makeup of Pharisees and and other uh, chief priest, this ruling religious body. That's who Caiaphas is talking to here in verse 50 saying that one man should die. John wants us to know, kph has already said Jesus needs to die going into this in the garden that's in Caiaphas, his mind already. But there's a second reason I think why this comes up. That one man should die. That phrase is because divinely speaking, when Caiaphas says this, Caiaphas is God's unconscious, if I can use that term, prophetic voice. Cafu doesn't know what he's really saying here. He thinks Jesus should just die, get done with Jesus. He's so, so annoying. He just upsets everything. He's destroying their power. He's sick of it. He wants Jesus dead. But when Kaphas says the words, one man should die for the people, God is saying, yes, I put that there. You got it right, Caiaphas, but you have no idea what you're saying. Jesus needs to die because it's the only way anyone's sins can be forgiven. Again, the unconscious prophetic voice, Jesus again, is in control. This is God's plan.
Speaker 1 00:29:47 Go down to verse 19. This is where Anis is questioning Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:29:52 Now when Anis that they call the high priest, but really he's the former high priest, man of power is now questioning about verse 19, verse 20. He's beginning to question. We'll have some of that on the screen in a minute. Jesus, this is a sham, this is a scam. This is a show. This is ridiculous. What's happening here? It's illegal. What's happening here with, with no witnesses there in the middle of the night. This is against all their laws of how to do an interrogation or they want to call it a trial. I'm sorry, I know writers call it a trial, but I hate that word. This is an interrogation. Really. The chief priest had no legal power and yet he's questioning Jesus and questioning Jesus and questioning Jesus. And Jesus doesn't stand for it here. If we look carefully at the text starting around verse 20, well see, Jesus is calling him out.
Speaker 1 00:30:46 You'll see that Jesus is verbally challenging this high priest. He reminds the high priest, you've had three years, you've had plenty of time to gather your witnesses, plenty of time to get all the information. You're asking me now, why are you doing this? I'm public figure. I don't hold things in secret. I taught in your synagogues. Look what it says in verse and let alone the miracles. Verse 20 says this, Jesus answered him meaning anus, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews come together. I've said nothing in secret. This wasn't a secret clan or a secret band or a cult or anything. This was out in the open verse 21. Why do you ask me? Jesus said to Anis, ask those. Oh wait, that's right. There are no witnesses around. Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. They know what I said. Verse 21, the interrogation that's going on. We see that Jesus is rebuking the high priest and because they know it, they feel it, they see it. The officer strikes Jesus. Jesus is basically saying during this, as he's rebuking them, where's your witnesses? This is illegal. In verse 23. Then, uh, they finally sent him to Caiaphas because the, frankly what's happened is Anis has lost and he knows it. He's lost. And this is only one of six interrogation slash trials that Jesus will go through one of six.
Speaker 1 00:32:23 So whether it's in the garden of Yosemite or being bound and questioned by anis the high priest or struck by the official, you see courage. You see control, and I hope this helps this week because we don't serve a victim. We serve a glorious savior who has risen at the right hand of the Father. But as we go towards the cross, remember we serve this Jesus. Sometimes I I think, and I think of it this way, if you learn anything in these dark hours, we see that courage in any circumstance is based on complete confidence in God.
Speaker 1 00:33:08 I think of people like Esther and the Old Testament, amazing, amazing woman took great, great risks to save the nation of Israel. Under Persian rule, I think of David or not King David, same, same guy, right? But the young David, David facing Goliath, this large huge, they call him giant of a man warrior. Perfect record. But he went against him. David did. How could he do that? What kind of courage did he have? Well, it was because his courage was based on the confidence he had in the Lord. But let me be specific. When I talk about courage, when I talk about courage in the New Testament, the Bible talks about courage, some, but it's usually this idea of boldness and confidence. So I can't really separate those ideas, courage, boldness, confidence, all in the Lord, but to have this, to have these things that I'm talking about, don't we want them?
Speaker 1 00:34:05 I want them. We need to believe two things, and this is just the start, just for today, just the start. We need to believe two things. Number one, God is sovereign over everything. And number two, God is good. Let me start with God is sovereign. God is sovereign. I need to ask myself today, and I challenge you to do the same thing. Do I really believe that he is in control everything over everything and can I trust him? Like today? I'm not talking about tonight, I mean right now in this moment with everything, whatever you're going through functionally day in and day out, do you believe he is powerful and in control, meaning sovereign over everything, yes or no? It's really a yes or no. Do I or do I not? We need to remember that God has never been surprised.
Speaker 1 00:34:55 He's marveled at people's faith that's said in the New Testament, but he, he's not surprised and he's never hijacked. Circumstances do not hijack him at all. Remember, our Lord was fully and is fully human, trusting, certainly our God, but fully human. He trusted in this plan over everything else and he showed it by his actions. But do you believe that he is sovereign? Second, is he good? He is good. But do you ever ask yourself that question, do I really believe he is good and that he is my heavenly Father today? Functionally? Again, there's that word, do we really believe it in our lives today? He is good. Certainly. Now we know. So if I make the argument that he's sovereign, he's in, he's powerful in control. But what if he was bad? I think of the North Korean dictator man who has a lot of power over his people, over his nation, but he's really bad. He's bad for himself, he's bad for others. He's bad for the world. What if God was like that? If God was like that, you would never have an opportunity to be comforted by that God. But God is not only sovereign, he's good. And those two together lead us towards the beginning of courage away from fear and confidence and boldness.
Speaker 1 00:36:21 So now let's take a look at an example of fear in John chapter 18. There's three times, and you can just write these down if you're taking notes, you can look at verse 17. You can look at verse 25. You can look at verse 27. Those are the three times that Jesus or that that Peter says he doesn't know or he denied knowing Jesus. Before we go much further, here's that big idea again, you can trust Jesus. You can trust his plan and say, yes, I am his and have confidence in all circumstances. Now, the reason I wanna look at Peter here is not to do this. I don't want to condemn Peter. Um, he was certainly bold in many times in many ways and what he has done. But we don't wanna condemn him. We wanna look at what he did. We wanna try to understand what he did.
Speaker 1 00:37:15 Look at his boldness and courage earlier. This is on the this. We have a slide. John chapter 13, verse 37 said this, this is Peter talking to Jesus. He said, Lord, why can I not follow you? Now, Jesus is talking here about he's gonna be leaving them, but then Peter says this, I will lay down my life for you. That's a bold statement. Verse 38. This is in John chapter 13. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. So it's a bold claim by Peter of what he would do. But also, uh, earlier we saw in, in verse 10 when he cut off the servant's ear. So yeah, he's, he's bold, but Jesus knows the weakness of the flesh and what would happen. And Jesus prophesied in verse 38 here that he would deny knowing him three times.
Speaker 1 00:38:15 All of this, again, shows who's really in control. Jesus is. So let's look just at verse 17, verse 17. This is just the first of the other times when he denies knowing Jesus. It says this, verse 17, the servant girl at the door said to Peter, you also are not one of this man's disciple are you? And he said, I am not so why? Why would Peter deny Jesus? There's so much written about this <laugh>, but I think there's three reasons that help us today. And one is this. It's the first reason. Why did he deny? I think let's just be honest, that's the weakness of a flesh. And I'm not talking just about fear here. I'm talking about the flesh. I'm talking about this lack of sleep, lack of prayer, lack of food. I mean, he was weak at this point. He probably also thought a little too much of his strength, frankly.
Speaker 1 00:39:07 But Jesus had told them, you can see this in Luke 22, that you can see Jesus had told them to be praying while they were in the garden earlier. And he said, Jesus said this, that you may not enter into temptation. He knew what was coming. He tried to prepare them, but they didn't pray. They weren't ready. They were weak. Peter, later on, he writes again, I'm gonna go to one Peter again. One Peter chapter five, verse eight. Peter has learned by this time, he reflects, he looks back, he says these words to the church. He says, be on the alert because your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Peter's weakness had caused him to be devoured at least momentarily. He didn't lose his faith, but he didn't hide his Lord because he wasn't prepared. And certainly he hadn't been praying he wasn't ready.
Speaker 1 00:40:07 He underestimated his own weakness. I think there's a second obvious reason why Peter denied Jesus. That's the fear that he had like me. And you might have had to ridicule of suffering, of persecution, of even death. This one might be very obvious to all of us. So I won't spend much time on that. He wasn't prepared for many reasons, but he was in fear and he denied his Lord. There's a third reason though, and this, this one is I think often overlooked and we can see it as we look out through the gospels and acts and what happens moving forward. The higher purpose is he's equipping, and this is gonna sound odd, first, equipping people p peter for leadership. Because in Luke chapter 22, verse 31, Satan asks Jesus for permission to sift Peter like wheat. That means to cause a stir, to give him some difficulty.
Speaker 1 00:41:15 And Jesus decided to use this for a higher purpose. What's that higher purpose? Look at verse 31 of Luke 22. It says, Simon, this is Jesus speaking, Simon Simon. That means Peter. Behold, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus said, I tell you Peter, and then he says again that you're gonna deny me three times. But Jesus's plan here, the higher plan behind what seems an awful, uh, yes, it was an awful thing Peter denying Jesus. But there's a higher plan, Jesus's sovereign over all of this. And that higher plan is that he will use Peter through this event to equip him, to make him stronger.
Speaker 1 00:42:14 On the other end of it, he's teaching him so that he can be a, so he can strengthen his brothers and become a great leader. And he did. If you know the rest of the story, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus restored him to ministry. He became the leader that we know of as Peter. And so my prayer for us this week has been, as I've been preparing, this is for you and this has been for me, that we will see Jesus as our model, as our Lord, striving for courage, accepting and following his plan for our life. Being faithful, being bold, having confidence, moving from fear to faith and to courage in all of that and saying, yes, I know Jesus. Yes, he's my Lord. And live that out gyrus. Some of you know who gyrus is, gyrus in the Bible, he was a synagogue leader and at one point he was desperate in his life, his daughter was dying the worst, probably the darkest day of his life, I would assume his daughter's about to die.
Speaker 1 00:43:19 And Jesus meets him and he says to gyrus, do not fear. Only believe isn't that we want. Isn't that what we want? We want to believe Jesus. We don't want to fear. So what can we do? Well, I want to give at least three things up here that we can do. And the first is this. Let's begin today in prayer, preparing your heart for good Friday and for Easter. So maybe prayer isn't your thing, but I'm gonna ask and challenge you today. Just go to the Lord today. Begin praying in this season as we move towards the cross with all humility, all gratitude. Pray to God, be prepared for the season that's coming, the cross and the resurrection. The second would be, I've already talked about this somewhat at length. Choose to believe the truth that he is sovereign, he is good. You know, if we don't do that, we really don't have any tools to begin the move away from anxiety or the move away from worry.
Speaker 1 00:44:23 God is sovereign, he is good. Remember that? I remember visiting a, a nursing home, um, several times visiting this one man, and he, um, wasn't very old, but he wasn't gonna get better and he was in bad shape. And I'm trying to ask God, God help. How am I going to love him rightly in your, how am I gonna be like you to him? How am I gonna comfort him? <laugh>, isn't it interesting how Jesus flips tables over? This man was ministering to me the times I met him. He loved Psalm 91. He had it memorized and he would say this regularly. Usually I'd be reading the thing and he'd be saying it from memory. He'd say this, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust He got the sovereignty of God. He was in with his plan, even though it was hard, but also he believed in God's goodness. And I learned that day that I need to stop asking these questions or at least try to. What will I do? God, how can I do this? What's going to happen to me? Instead, change that narrative of my mind and my heart to something more like, Lord, this is tough. This is really too tough for me. I can't take this. I know you're good. I know you're sovereign. God, keep me faithful. Keep me close. Don't
Speaker 1 00:45:51 Push me away. God would never do that, would he? No, because he's good. Give me strength. God change me. Change my heart to understand and glorify yourself. Change the nerve of our hearts. Third thing we could do
Speaker 1 00:46:10 Is don't let fear take root in your heart. Now, we fear sometimes, don't we? When I say don't let it take root in your heart. Here's what I mean by that. Sometimes when we're hurting and fearful, we think we have no options. But never believe that we always have hope. We always have options because a believer in Jesus Christ is someone who has the Holy Spirit in them. And we always have the power of God to believe the truth. That there are options. There is a way out of this fear and worry every time the gospel doesn't just save us for then it saves us for now. We don't have to fear things like divine condemnation. We don't have to fear believers in Christ, God's rejection or the value of the shadow of death, whatever that is for you. You don't have to fear no man, no woman or no thing ever. So the Apostle Paul writes, as we move to a time of communion, I want to just make a shift here as we get ready for the Lord's table, that the apostle Paul is writing Timothy to encourage him. And he says these words for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
Speaker 1 00:47:27 So when we have trusted Jesus for salvation, this begins the journey of knowing he is sovereign, knowing he is good, and moving away from anxiety and fear towards our courageous and loving savior. And so, if you've already received Jesus as your savior, if you know and believe in your heart and are following him today, that he has died on the cross to forgive your sins. If he is your Savior, you believe he is raised three days later from the grave, then please take communion with us. You don't have to be part of village Church to do that if you're a believer in Christ, whether you're home or here today. But if you haven't done that yet in this moment, you can ask Jesus to forgive your sins. No longer trusting in your own good works to be right with God, but trust in Jesus only. And today the Bible says, if you're ready to make that faith commitment, that step in Jesus, you will be saved. Do that today and take communion with us.
Speaker 1 00:48:24 If you're not there yet. Come see me afterwards. And instead of taking communion, let's talk about that, what it means to know Jesus' savior. And so as we normally do, we're gonna have a song here in a a minute and a time of reflection. And if you don't have the elements, you can go get them in the column to my left column, 'em to my right, and also back at those double doors, and we'll take communion together after the song. Let's take a minute now just where you are in silence and pray to God and ask him to forgive your sins. Let's do that now.
