The First Trial and the Denial by Peter part 1

Well, take your Bible and turn with me this morning to John 18. I think you know by now that we'll be covering verses 12 to 18, John chapter 18, verse 12 to 18. Now, last week we covered a larger portion of scripture. We were in verses 1 through 11 as we looked at the subject, Jesus Arrests in the Garden. It's always a battle for me as to how many verses to cover. We want to take our time and get all that we want the Lord has for us each time we meet, but we also want to cover an adequate amount of scripture. Now before us, there is a larger block of scripture. It's really one message.

If you look at your scripture, your copy of God's Word, truthfully, verses 12 down to 27 is one message, one story, one block of scripture. But we'll break that up this morning into a part 1 and a part 2 so we can adequately look at the verses. Now I've said several times that last week we turned the corner. We turned the corner in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Verses 1 through 11, we saw that Jesus entered into the garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and he walked straight into his arrest. Actually he goes to Gethsemane for two reasons. First for prayer.

Now the synoptic gospels, that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they record this agonizing prayer in the garden. Now John does not record this prayer. In our Bible study last Wednesday night, we looked at this prayer from Matthew's account, and we answered the question, "What was in the cup?" Verse 39 of chapter 26, Matthew's Gospel. We saw Jesus staring into that bitter cup. Now the second reason he went into the garden was for his arrest. Jesus knew all things that were coming according to John 18 verse 4. He knew that traitor Judas was coming to assist in this arrest. He knew that the mob was about to come and arrest him.

And truly this was a divine appointment. I said earlier that we turn the corner here in chapter 18. I think it's a good way for us to view what's taking place. Jesus turns the corner from his earthly ministry from all of the time that he has spent with these men, and he begins his journey to the cross. Now truthfully I'm afraid I set us up for some heartache last week. I recommended that we read all four Gospel accounts of the events surrounding Jesus' arrest. I do believe it is good for us so that we can see the full story. If I can illustrate it like this, it's like a picture.

When we read all of the accounts, all of the Gospel writings, the picture just gets clearer and clearer. But the hard thing is that with the different accounts surrounding the arrest of Jesus and the trials and the crucifixion, they don't always fit together easily unless we do some digging. I want to give us a little more information that will help us here. We need to see that Jesus went on trial before the Jews and before the Romans. There was a religious trial with the Jews, and then there was a civil trial with the Romans. The Jewish trial took place in three phases. First, Jesus simply went before the Jewish authorities.

We will examine that trial in our verses this morning, the first one. And then second, He went before the high priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. Now John doesn't give us that account. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Luke do give us that account. Then the third trial was after sunrise the next morning. And here the Jewish authorities confirmed the decision that had been made earlier. Now that's given to us in Matthew and Mark. The Roman trial can be seen in three phases as well. First, Jesus went before Pilate. Now Pilate was the Roman governor. All four gospels give us this account of Jesus before Pilate. Then second, Jesus went before Herod.

He was the puppet Jewish king. Luke gives us this information. And then the last trial was back before Pilate, and this is found in all four gospels. So we see that Jesus had a religious trial with the Jews. He had a civil trial with the Romans, and each had three phases. And then we throw in there Peter's denials and all of the reactions of the other disciples. And if we understand this activity, then we understand why Jesus is going back and forth before so many. Again, I want to help us see how all four gospels fit together to give us the full picture of what God wants us to see with His arrest and the crucifixion and resurrection.

Now in last week's message we saw a demonstration of Jesus' power and His divine dominance in these circumstances. He literally blew the arresting mob over when He revealed Himself as God. He didn't claim to be God. He stated that He was God. Jesus also demonstrated His power when He healed the slave's ear. You remember that Peter lashed out? This was out of his great love, but he cut off the ear of a slave there in the mob. But this morning we will see a great contrast between Jesus' great glory and man's great sinfulness. Peter displaced his sinfulness by denying Jesus.

The Jews, who should have welcomed Him as the Messiah, they want to hold on to power and wealth and position, so they sentenced Jesus to death. But the Romans, they just want peace in their conquered territory. They are a bloodthirsty people by nature, and so executing Jesus was really no big deal for them. They just wanted Him out of the way. So we see a great demonstration of Jesus' glory and a great demonstration of man's sinfulness. Now the title of the message is rather simple. It goes right along with our verses. We have Jesus' first trial. I spoke of that just a moment ago. Jesus' first trial and then Peter's denial.

There are two major truths that we will look at. I want to take the time to explore these verses. Number one, we'll look at Jesus before the Jewish authorities. This is the first of the Jewish trials. And then Peter's first denial of Jesus. Again, we ask you to take notes because we want you to be good stewards of what the Lord gives us. We want you to be good students of God's Word. If we can assist you in that endeavor in any way, we'll be glad to help you. So let's look at our verses this morning. We've read them, but we need to read them again starting in verse 12.

So the Roman cohort, that's that band of arresting Roman soldiers and the commander and the officers. These officers would have been the Jewish temple police. They came, they arrested Jesus, and they bound Him, and they led Him to Annas first. For He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. Verse 14, "Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people. But Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was standing at the door.

He was outside. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter inside. The slave girl, therefore, who kept the door, said to Peter, 'You are not also one of the man's disciples, are you?' Jesus said, 'I am not.' And then now the slave and the other officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire for it was cold, and they were warming themselves. Peter also was with him, standing and warming himself." So you see our verses before us. You see how we will divide them this morning. So let's start off with our first major truth. Jesus, He is before the Jewish authorities.

You can see this easily right here. Verse 12, all the way to verse 14, covers Jesus right after the arrest before the Jewish authorities. Now at a quick glance of these passages, it really is obvious that we are continuing with the unfolding story of Jesus' arrest. Verses 1 through 11, we learn that Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and He walked straight into His arrest. I said earlier that Jesus was turning the corner. He is leaving His ministry with His disciples and other men, and He is turning to face the cross. And this first step in facing the cross was going before the Jewish authorities.

Now I want to examine these portions of Scripture. Jesus before the authorities will make three observations out of these verses. First, I want us to see the nature of the arrest. The nature of the arrest. Look back at verse 12. We see the Roman cohort. We learn that as a detachment of Roman soldiers. There was a commander. Then there are the temple police. These officers, they arrested Jesus and they bound Jesus. Right away we should see what I call a great cooperation. A great cooperation. We have the Roman soldiers. We have the Jewish temple police. And they are cooperating together to arrest Jesus.

Now two times Jesus displayed His power and glory to these men. We saw that last week in verses 1 to 11. He declared His deity and identifying Himself as God. And then second, when He healed the ear of Malchus, the high priest's slave, He reveals His glory. But here we see that this verse reveals the hardness of their hearts. This reveals the sinfulness of their sin. The Jewish leaders in Romans were cooperating to arrest the Son of God. Of course we know that all these things were taking place by the predetermined plan of God. This was determined forever ago. And we know that Jesus was still in complete, complete control.

But then second, notice the beginning of His trial. Verse 13. "And they led Him away to Annas first." He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. And now Caiaphas, he was the one who had advised the Jews. This was earlier, that it was expedient for one man to die for the nation. Now here in verse 13, we see what I call a great corruption. A great corruption. Whereas the great cooperation was easy to see, this great corruption might be tougher for some of us to see. In verse 13, we see that Jesus was taken to Annas first, not Caiaphas. See, Caiaphas was the ruling high priest.

Now they were related, which should reveal some shady activities that are going on. This is a complicated matter, but I will simplify things for us to see. The office of the high priest, it was a lifetime position. But the Romans, they had inserted their authority. They had meddled in things. And they had removed Annas and replaced him with Caiaphas, his son-in-law. Now this can be confusing because Annas is still called the high priest. I'll give you an example that will help you see this. This is much like what takes place in our nation. And when a US president is elected, he's called Mr. President.

But out of respect, when he goes out of office, he is still referred to as Mr. President. Now that's important for you to see because many times Caiaphas is mentioned as the high priest, but Annas is referred to as the high priest. But what's important to see is that all of these things stayed in the family. Later Annas had five sons, and these five sons went on to be high priests as well. But there's another layer to this corruption. It was not just controlling the office, but also controlling the money and controlling the power. Annas received a lot of income from the temple.

He received a commission from profits in the sale of sacrificial animals in the courts. As a matter of fact, some commentators say that when a pilgrim would bring their own offering, if it was declared to be unfit, see, they had to buy an offering there in the temple courts, thus padding the pockets of men like Annas. Annas received commissions from the exchanging of money or currencies there in the temple courts. One Bible commentator that I noted this week stated that Annas Greed was so famous that the outer courts of the temple where all of these transactions took place, they were called the bazaar of Annas.

All the people knew what took place. Where this great corruption was political and it was financial, politically Annas maintained the power in his association and cooperation with Rome. The Bible commentator Leon Morris describes it really good. I like it. And I quote, he's talking about Annas. He was in all probability, the real power in the land, whatever the legal technicalities were. So financially Annas grew rich off God's house and God's people. But remember where we are. Jesus is coming to trial and I wanted you to see who and what type of people Jesus went before.

These were the corrupt Jewish authorities of the day and this is the beginning of his trial. Now the third observation I want us to see is the nature of his trial. Look at verse 14. Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient or necessary for one man to die on behalf of the people. Now here we see Caiaphas, the high priest, and his influence. He was in the office therefore he did have a great deal of authority. But to know what this phrase means in verse 14 we have to go back in John's gospel. Back to an earlier conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.

Now we've been progressing through John and we do remember there was constant conflict between Jesus and the authorities. But back in John 11 verse 47 the text reads this. So the high priests and the Pharisees they gathered the council. See they're wrestling with the issue of what do we do with Jesus. What do they say? What are we to do? Now this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. See how they were in cahoots with the Romans. Now notice verse 49.

"But one of them Caiaphas who was the high priest that year said to them, 'You know nothing at all nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people not that the whole nation should perish.'" Now here this is what I call the great manipulation. You could say the court was rigged for they had already determined to kill Jesus. One of the commentators that I looked at this week said it is more like a biased police investigation or a witch hunt from which most decent people would recall in horror. That's exactly what it was. That was a great manipulation of the Jewish legal system.

So in summary what's going on in these verses 12, 13 and 14. We have a great cooperation. We have a great corruption and a great manipulation. The Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities were in cahoots and arresting Jesus. He was first taken to this horribly corrupt Jewish legal system. He was rigged. Anas and Caiaphas and the other Jews had already determined to kill Jesus. They were just looking for the right opportunity. They simply had to cooperate with the Romans to get it done because they were under their authority. Now before I make some application, we must remember that the Jews were supposed to be a holy people.

They were supposed to be set apart by God to take the message of the one true God to the disciples. Now if you know your Old Testament history, you know that the Jews failed miserably. They failed miserably before Jesus came. And I want us to see that when Jesus came, they continued to fail miserably. We see the religious leaders in a great sin, one that will ultimately lead to the nation's judgment because they're still rejecting God's purpose for the people. Now an application, it's really sad to say, but we can see many parallels in the Jewish authorities and what they're doing and what takes place in many churches today.

The Jewish leadership, they were holding on to power, they were holding on to position, they were holding on to prestige. Many churches today are led by men who do the same things. Men and organizations, they want to hold on to power and position and prestige. We've all seen this. It's turned our stomachs. Many churches are led by bodies of men. They hold on to power. They have the prestige and the eyes of the people and they hold on to that position. Oh, there's some churches that are led by families. People know it.

They know that this family and that family, they control things in the life of the church and they hold on to power and they hold on to those positions and they hold on to prestige. Oh, but we cannot let ministers off the hook because there are sometimes ministers of the gospel who do the very same thing. They hold on to power, they hold on to position and they hold on to prestige as well. And they're just like these religious leaders. Whether it's a deacon body or a group of family members or ministers. The Jewish leadership and the people rejected Jesus. They rejected his message. They rejected his ministry.

They rejected his lordship over the nation. The Jews wanted their own Messiah. They wanted their own message and they wanted their own ministry. They wanted national independence. They wanted a great national glory like they had in days of old. They rejected Jesus. Many churches today have created their own gospel message. Some of you might not realize that that's possible. It's always gone on. In the study of the book of Galatians, you'll see that there were some who came into the church and they presented another gospel. And Paul said that if any man, even an angel or himself, preaches another gospel, let them be eternally condemned.

You know what Paul's saying? If anybody alters the gospel, let them be damned. That's what he's saying. And churches do that. The Jews rejected the message of the gospel and the message of the one true God. And there are churches that create their own gospel and they create their own purpose for the church. See, that's what the Jews said. They rejected Jesus and they said they wanted a Messiah for their own purposes. And churches do that today. They take the church, they hijack the church and they want the church for them. And really they want their own Messiah because Jesus is Lord over His church. The Jewish leaders sought to destroy Jesus.

They know ultimately they did, only because it was part of God's predetermined plan. He was not a helpless victim. He was in total control. And in many churches, if you seek to preach Christ, if you seek to preach lordship over the church, those leaders who hold on to power and prestige and the positions, they'll seek to destroy you too. I heard a man say it like this, talking about churches like this. He says, "Listen friends, don't fret. Just because it's a red brick building and a steeple on top doesn't mean it's a church. Many of these so-called churches are not churches." Now why is it important for me to bring this to you?

I know it's negative and I know sometimes we might think to ourselves we need to move on. But we must understand the day in which we live because we must stay connected to the fact that these things go on and we must pray and pray and pray some more that the Lord Jesus will always be the Lord over this church. It's not my church. It's not Brother Keith's church. This is the Lord's church. Let's move on to our second major truth. Number two, I want us to see Peter's first denial of Jesus. His first denial of Jesus. It's a larger portion of scripture but let's read it to get it firmly in our minds. And Simon Peter was following Jesus.

This is after the arrest. So was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest and he entered with Jesus into the court, the court of the high priest. But Peter was standing at the door. In other words, he couldn't come in. So the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the door keeper, that slave girl, and he brought Peter in.

The slave girl, therefore, who kept the door said to Peter, "You are not also one of the man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." Now the slaves and the officers were standing there having made a charcoal fire for it was cold and they were warming themselves and Peter also was with them standing and warming himself. Now even though Peter had set out to be this self-appointed bodyguard for Jesus, after the arrest of Jesus, Peter proved himself a coward. He fled the garden with the rest of the disciples but in Peter's defense, he does seem not to venture very far.

It seems that he gathered up enough strength and courage to follow Jesus at a distance. And here we will see that he kept some distance but not far enough, not far enough to keep from being entangled in this great series of events. Now there are two observations I want to make here. This is Peter's denial, just observing this denial. First I want us to see Peter and John's actions. Peter and John's actions. Verse 15, "Peter was following. There was another disciple." And then verse 16, we see there at the high priest's courtyard and John gets Peter inside the courtyard. Now here a question arises very quickly. Who is the disciple in verse 15?

I called him John in verse 15. So another disciple. Now many have speculated, most Bible scholars do believe that this is John. All throughout his gospel, John's gospel, John does not name himself. But some scholars have questioned if John had access to the high priestly family. As a matter of fact, one resource I ran across talked about the family business because they had employees, they speculate that it was a larger business. So John would have been more than just a common laborer. And this could have gained him access to someone of prestige. Some have suggested that this unidentified man, maybe Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea.

But most speculate that this mystery disciple is John. There is no way to know positively, but the disciple helped Peter gain access to the courtyard, the high priest of the courtyard. And I believe it was John. But then second, notice Peter's spineless denial. Let's go back to our verses. He comes in verse 17, "The slave girl therefore who kept the door said to Peter, 'You are not also one of the man's disciples, are you?' And he said, 'I am not.'" Now earlier I said Peter had gained some strength. Somehow he mustered up some courage.

He has enough strength and courage not only to follow Jesus, but he has enough strength and courage to enter into the high priest's courtyard. This is rather dangerous. Now Peter's newfound courage is about to be tested. The text says that a slave girl asked Peter if he was one of the disciples. Now it's interesting to note the construction of the language in her question. The wording of her question expects a no answer. And that is just the response that Peter gave her. Now I call this spineless because of who posed the question.

This was a slave girl, not one of the temple police, not one of the representatives of the high priest's household. She did not have the power to arrest Peter or to harm Peter in any way. Another layer to Peter's denial was his reaction. He could not bring himself to admit his denial after he denied because verse 18 tells us that he walked over to a fire to warm himself with a new crowd. It seems that Peter was trying to get away. He was trying to get away from the girl. He's trying to get away from the question and he's trying to get away from his reaction. His cowardice was really coming to the surface.

Now in summary, what do we see in verses 15 to 18? Peter gathered up some strength. He mustered some courage to follow Jesus even at a distance. With some help, we think it's John. Peter makes his way into the high priest's courtyard, but his newfound courage doesn't last long. He cowers to a simple slave girl and denies Christ. That's why I call it spineless. Now let's take a step back a minute and let's look at Peter and his behavior. He has a lot of duplicitous behavior in all of these verses. Back in the garden, Peter bursts out in violence to protect Jesus, but notice who he attacks.

He attacks a slave that is in the mob, not one of the Roman soldiers, not one of the temple police. He boastfully tries to defend Jesus, but then he flees in the darkness. As things progress, Peter, he does muster up this courage. He musters up some strength to follow Jesus, and then when he gets even more brave, he gets brave by going into the high priest's courtyard. But this newfound bravery, it's tested. And when a harmless slave girl asks him if he was one of Jesus' disciples, he denies it. And then it seems that he sulks off into a corner to escape these circumstances.

Now in application, I think there are two things that we can learn here. First about Peter, and then in our own lives. First of all, I want us to see an application that we can struggle like Peter more than we know. We can. Some of you here, you may struggle like Peter more than you realize. Peter struggled in understanding the purpose for the Messiah. Is it not his battle all along? He just could not bear to allow his Messiah to die. Jesus was to suffer and die. He was to die to save sinners. And Peter just could not accept that for his Messiah. There are many today.

I believe they fail or they struggle to see the purpose of Christ's death and purpose of the Church. There's a lot here for us, I believe. And I'll try to help explain this application, what I mean. We need to see that Christ came to save sinners. And here's where we make the mistake. He didn't come just to save us. He came to save sinners. Oh, don't get too far from the fact that you are a dirty, low-down, rotten sinner. Oh, that might not be Bible language, but it sure is accurate. Don't move too far past the fact that Jesus came to die sinners.

Because if we're not careful, we will come to Christ and come to the Church and make it all about us and we will look over those dirty sinners. Christ came to save sinners. Peter did not want Jesus to go to the cross. He did not want him to die. He wanted an earthly Messiah. We also need to see that Christ's purpose for His Church is to be victorious. The Church is to grow. The Church is to reach people. And the Church is to grow saints. This is a two-fold work that we should see. After people come to know Christ, they grow in faith. They grow in obedience to the Lord. They become more and more holy.

But yet there are more people to reach with the Gospel. And yet the Church is also to go around the world. I'm afraid that there are many people. They just want the Church to be a glorified Sunday school class. A few tight-knit people, a little small circle, and they fail to realize that Jesus died for sinners and the Church is to reach those sinners. And so what do I see? We are more like Peter than we know. We fail to see the purpose of the Messiah. And that is to suffer and bleed and die and enable the Church to reach people. And the purpose of the Church, which is to reach lost sinners, is just the purpose of the Messiah.

And then also, notice Peter also struggled with loyalty. He struggled with loyalty. There was a lot more of self that needed to die in Peter than he knew. We see it because we have all of the story. It was a greater work of sanctification that was needed in Peter. But I want us to see that we can be far more like Peter. Oh, we might not deny Christ this way, but we forsake Christ in our jobs. We forsake Christ for our entertainments. We forsake Christ for our hobbies. We forsake Christ for friends and family. See there are many, many circumstances that come along. And we choose other things over Christ.

It might not be an overt denial, but it is an issue of loyalty. Anything that distracts you, anything that distracts me from a fierce loyalty to Christ. Does that not put us in the same boat as Peter? So what are we seeing in this denial? Peter denied the purpose of Christ. And Peter had a loyalty issue. And we need to check our loyalty. And we need to check the purpose that we have for the Messiah and the purpose that we have for the church. Now in moving away from our verses to the conclusion of the message, I want us to see why we must see things like this.

You might say, "Pastor, our church is not like the Jewish leadership." I agree with you. I'm very thankful. There are a lot of circumstances and ultimately God's good grace and providence that has brought us here where we do not face these issues. And you might say, "Pastor, we do seek to be loyal to Christ." I do believe some of you do, but I do believe some of you need to check your loyalty. I believe it is good for us to see how corrupt many churches can be. I do. You know, many times some of you will visit other churches for various reasons. Maybe it's vacation. Maybe it's family issues. Maybe you find yourself out of town on business.

And you know, I always enjoy hearing about your worship experiences in other churches. Now sometimes some of you will come and you'll tell me about wonderful worship experiences. I love hearing that. I love hearing what God is doing at other churches. But sometimes some of you go and you go to churches and you come back and you see just how bad they are. I've had that happen. I'll give you a good example. Last summer when our family, we were on vacation. There was one particular church I thought we could attend, but we just couldn't get there. The distance was a little further.

And you know, when you're on strange roads and those kinds of things, it can be tough. So we just pulled into another church. It didn't take long for us to realize we were in the wrong church. And to be honest with you, if they would have been a welcome where I could have gotten up and slipped out with my family, I would have. But I couldn't do that. They had an unqualified person leading in worship. He was a woman. And you know, it was good for us. Because we see at times how corrupt and how unbiblical churches can be. And it can be good for us to see.

Because sometimes it can give us a newfound appreciation for what the Lord's given us here. We all need that. But it's also good for us to see the Peter in all of us. It's also good for us to see the Peter that can be in all of us. See we need an unwavering loyalty to Christ and an unwavering loyalty to His church. And this unwavering loyalty means this. Lord, no matter what you say, no matter what you do, even when I don't understand the circumstances, I'm going to obey. It's rather simple. All Peter had to do was obey what the Lord had taught him. But he had to die. He had to die to those feelings. He had to die to those ideas.

He had to die to so much. And we need to see that there can always be some Peter in all of us. And we have to fight our flesh. We have to work hard for obedience. And we have to work hard to know the purposes of God in His Word so that we can have an unwavering loyalty to Christ, to the Gospel, the message of the church, and the work of the church. Because see, ultimately, Peter just wanted a different Messiah. Now what are we looking at this morning? It's the first trial and denial by Peter. Jesus goes before Annas. This first denial of Peter is there.

And then next week when we transition into the other verses, we see that Jesus moves on in His trials and we see more of Peter, more of Peter coming to the surface. May the Lord help us in our personal unwavering loyalty to Jesus. And may He help us to never be led by corrupt leaders or a corrupt church or a corrupt Gospel message. Let's pray.