Sermon Tone Analysis

Have you ever felt betrayed?

Someone you love and were close to after a period of time reveals themselves to be working against you?

Maybe an employee steals from you, or a spouse cheats on you, or a friend talks about you behind your back.

How did that feel?

Jesus can walk with you in it.

No one has been more betrayed than Jesus, and yet no one has remained so steadfast in his love as Jesus.

Your bulletins say the two betrayals of the teacher, but as I was studying this passage, I noticed a consistent pattern of betrayal against Jesus.

I noticed there weren't only two betrayals, but three betrayals here in the first half of John 18.

This is betrayal #1.

Betrayal #1: Judas' Betrayal

And John makes the point here that even though Jesus is being betrayed with a kiss, even though they are arresting him in secret Jesus is very intentional about following through with what the Father commanded him to do.

There are a few notable things about this passage:

First: the parallel John draws here between Jesus and King David simply by including a small detail:

This sounds an awful lot like 2 Sam 15, when David is forced to flee from his son Absalom as he invades Jerusalem and he runs into a man names Ittai (Isaiah's middle name) and 2 Samuel describes the retreat of the kind like this:

Do you see where John's parallel comes from?

Like David, Jesus is the king betrayed by one of his beloeved, going into exile in the wilderness.

And this is because Jesus is our king.

There's a movement in our culture to try to accept Jesus as a friend or a good teacher, but strip him of the authority due to our God and our King.

Not only is Jesus our savior, but he is also our God and King, and John makes sure we know it.

So Jesus intentionally goes to the place where Judas knows he is going to be at night, after dark, away from the city so that he could be betrayed and arrested.

Both Jews and Romans showed up to the arrest, thus indicting the whole world with his blood.

We are all guilty of this sin.

We all have sin-stained hands.

No one escapes the curse of sin-stained hands covered in his blood unless they are covered by his blood.

And we must run to the king to cleanse us of our rebellion and betrayal against him.

Here comes betrayal #2:

Jesus uses the divine name to show his power here.

"Who are you looking for?" "Jesus of Nazareth."

"I am." (ego eimi).

They fall down.

This is to point again to Jesus' amazing obedience to the Father.

It isn't for lack of power that he is arrested.

He was determined to complete the mission given to him by the Father.

But do you see betrayal number two in this?

Betrayal #2: Peter draws his sword.

Right after Jesus petitions for the release of his disciples and prepares to go and perform the act that qualifies him as our great high priest, to be the substitionary atonement both immediately here and the next day, Peter takes out his sword.

This is the same stuff he got rebuked for earlier in Jesus' ministry.

Remember, Jesus predicts his own death, and Peter says, "Lord, this will never happen to you!"

And Jesus says, "get behind me Satan!

You're a stumbling block!

You're thinking about earthly things, not heavenly things!"

And still, Peter draws a sword here, betraying all that Jesus came to accomplish, slicing off an ear.

Seriously, how bad do you have to be with a sword to hit just an ear.

One commentator says this:

The blow was as clumsy as Peter’s courage was great; the tactic was as pointless as Peter’s misunderstanding was total.

John agrees with Luke in noting that it was Malchus’ right ear that was severed, and with Matthew in recording Jesus’ command to put away the sword (cf.

also Je. 47:6).

But in Matthew this command is followed by a paraenetic conclusion: ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword’.

Here John’s report focuses all the attention on Jesus Christ himself: Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?

Peter’s bravery is not only useless, it is a denial of the work to which Jesus has just consecrated himself—and entirely in line with the Synoptic evidence as to the failure of the disciples to comprehend the passion when it was announced to them (Mk.

8:31–33 par.; cf.

Jn. 13:6–10).

And still, despite Peter's betrayal here, Jesus loves him and keeps him safe here- not losing one that he has been given by the Father, like he prayed about in 17:12 and like he says in 6:39 after the feeding of the 5,000.

This is, of course a foreshadowing of the security that we experience in Jesus- it is total.

There is nothing among those who love Jesus that should make him doubt the efficacy of his work.

Pay attention to that charcoal fire.

It's important.

It's a word only used twice in Scripture, and John will bring it up again and we'll talk about it in a few weeks.

I won't tell you why it's important now, but know that it is.

Peter again makes his betrayal complete by denying Jesus.

This is the third betrayal of Jesus on this night:

Betrayal #3: Peter denies Jesus.

And this is the test we face in our world- we are looked at with disdain- surely you don't seriously believe in magical sky fairies and ancient superstitions, do you?

Peter, overwhelmed with the setting, gave in to fear and denied association with Jesus.

I suppose if you're counting, you could call this five betrayals of Jesus since we know Peter denies Jesus three times.

But first, I want to sort out some confusion I experienced while reading this passage for you:

They send Jesus to the Father-in-Law of the high priest, Annas, but verses 19-24 seem to confuse this:

When I first read this, I was confused because nowhere in the text does it say that the high priest came to Annas' house, however, it says that the hight priest questioned Jesus, then they later sent him to the high priest.

What's going on?

Annas was high priest from AD 6-15 and while the function lasts only a while, the ceremonial title lasts for life, so he is still called a high priest.

And of course, Jesus responds here to the threats and intimidations openly (boldly- parresia), which gives me a good opportunity to address a question I had a couple weeks ago- is parresia related to piracy?

The short answer is "no."

The greek root for piracy is "peirates"- a pirate, or raider, or enemy.

Though this night being described, Jesus finds himself surrounded by enemies.

And like so many of us, Peter denies his Lord and betrays him, and immediately regrets it.

he is immediately overcome with grief for it.

And Matthew says he wept bitterly.

And we weep bitterly for our sins.

But the important thing is that this is not where the story ends.

Not for Peter and not for us.

We can repent.

We can turn.

We can give our sin to Jesus in exchange for his righteousness.

We can trust him for our salvation.

Wretches though we are, we are beloved.

"If we are faithless, he is faithful, for he cannot deny himself," Paul says.

So when you sin, yes, weep bitterly for a time.

Your sin, my sin, killed Jesus, but God's power raised him from the dead.

And Jesus' blood declares that if you in him, you are innocent.

You are forgiven.

You are loved.

But if you aren't in Jesus, you are standing in judgement for the evil that you have done.

If you are rejecting the grace offered to you by God, you are standing in his wrath.

What reason do you have not to repent today?

If you've been betrayed, what reason do you have not to give your hurt and pain to Jesus?

Forgiveness is life-giving.

Heaven is going to be a wonderful place and Hell is hot, and forever is a long time.

Give your sins to Jesus, trust in him for salvation.

Stop betraying him.

Receive grace.