JESUS WAS ARRESTED, TRIED, AND SENTENCED TO DEATH
John 18:1-19:16a
Key Verse 18:37
“You are a king, then! said Pilate. Jesus answered, You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
As we have studied before, the gospel of John was written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in his name (20:31). The gospel of John also shows us that Jesus is king. According to the key verse, this was the reason he was born. Jesus was born king to come and rule our hearts with the peace of God and with the hope of God. He came to be our king to give us the truth of God and to ultimately give us the kingdom of God. As we learned last week in Jesus’ high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (17:3)
Now, to know Jesus means a commitment and a cost. Jesus had to be arrested, tried and crucified in our place. He had to suffer like a condemned criminal for our sins and stand in judgment for us in order for us to know him and have eternal life. He had to shed his innocent blood on the cross and die for us. In this morning’s passage, we want to examine the behavior of Simon Peter, Pilate and Jesus and how they reacted in this time of crisis. We can especially find ourselves in Simon Peter and in Pilate.
Through this passage, I pray that we may each examine our hearts and find out if we are committed to Jesus and are willing to know the truth from Jesus. Are you willing to pay the cost to be identified with Jesus by making a daily commitment to him? Are you willing to stay at his side no matter what the cost; no matter what the consequences? May God help you to come to Jesus and identify with him as your king. May God bless you especially to know that his arrest, trial, suffering and death was from your sins and that he was sentenced to die in your place.
Let’s examine how Simon Peter reacted to Jesus’ arrest. As we know Peter was Jesus’ top disciple. He was humanly strong and humanly faithful. He often was the first one to speak when Jesus had a question for his disciples. He was known to have a big mouth. When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” He was first to say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” When Jesus said they would all fall away, meaning that one day they would run away from him and be scattered, Peter said, “Even if all fall away; I will not.” Even when Jesus said that Peter himself would deny him three times, Peter said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you…” (Mk.14:27-31)
Now in chapter 18, we see Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ arrest after Jesus was met by a group of soldiers, officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. Look at Peter’s behavior in verse 10, when he sensed imminent danger to Jesus. Look at verse 10, “Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear…”
Peter looked brave here. However his actions do not come from having faith in God. They come from a fearful heart and a heart full of human desires to save his own self. Sure, Peter was loyal to Jesus and loved Jesus. However, his actions showed that he did not pray when he should have prayed. When we don’t pray to God and rely on ourselves, we can only go so far. We reach a human limit. When we don’t spend time praying to God, we can not expect to react as Jesus would. Instead we react emotionally and impulsively, like fallen man. We resort even to act violently and uncontrollably, and even hurt people by speaking foolish words.
Peter’s wild swing with the sword to protect Jesus and himself did not work out well. According to verse 12, Jesus was arrested and bound. When Peter saw this no doubt his heart fell and more fear flooded into his heart. Now Peter’s heart was weakened even more. This was the beginning point of him making a distance between himself and Jesus. Let’s look at 18:15-18 and see his first denial of Jesus. Let’s read verses 15-17, “Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in. ‘You are not one of his disciples, are you? The girl at the door asked Peter. He replied, ‘I am not.’”
How could Peter deny that he was one of Jesus’ disciples before a little girl? He denied Jesus, not one time, not two times, but three times!! As he denied Jesus, he began to slip away from Jesus and being identified with Jesus. In verse 18, he tried to blend in with the people who were warming themselves around a fire. He tried to look inconspicuous, perhaps by keeping his head low and mixing into this crowd. Then after he denied Jesus that one time, the second and third denials came quicker. In verses 25-27 he denied Jesus the second and third times. Each time when he was asked that he was Jesus’ disciple or that he was seen with Jesus, he denied it by saying, “I am not.”
How could such a thing happen to Simon Peter, Jesus’ top disciple, who had been so faithful and loyal to Jesus? It is because human faithfulness and human loyalty all have limitations. We can only go so far when we rely on ourselves and not Jesus. We can only go so far when we don’t make a commitment in our hearts to follow Jesus and do what he says no matter what the cost and no matter what the price. When we don’t make a commitment to follow Jesus, we begin to slip away from him little by little. We then find ourselves denying Jesus in little ways and then eventually in medium ways and then in larger ways.
Peter’s three denials of Jesus was no doubt the low point of his life. According to Luke’s gospel, when he denied Jesus the third time and the rooster crowed, he wept bitterly. He realized what he had done. He then remembered Jesus’ words, “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” (Lk.22:61-62) But Peter’s denial of Jesus was also the turning point in his life of faith. It was at that time that he was broken, completely broken of his human pride and self-reliance. His human strength and human zeal and human faithfulness had ran out of gas. Now he was emptied before the Lord. His breaking down and weeping was his sign of repentance.
Because Peter remembered Jesus’ words (Lk.22:61) even in times of failure, he could have hope and new strength. This was because God accepted his sincere and humble repentance. When we compare him to Judas Iscariot, we see a great difference. After Judas betrayed Jesus and sold him for thirty silver coins, he realized what he did was wrong. However, he did not repent, but was instead filled with remorse and self-pity. Then he went out and hung himself. He committed suicide.
But Peter repented. This was the difference and this was his turning point that made him stronger. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” After Peter repented, he could newly accept Jesus’ love for him and be restored. His spiritual eyes were opened up and he became a new man who was fully committed to Jesus. He was not afraid or ashamed to identify with Jesus and even to suffer for the name of Jesus. In his epistle 1 Peter, he wrote many encouraging words to the believers who were scattered all over the world due to their trials and suffering for preaching the gospel of Jesus and trying to live a holy and godly committed life to Jesus in an ungodly world. He wrote in 1Peter 4:13, “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
Peter’s commitment to Jesus and to identify with Jesus encouraged all the believers all over the world. He truly became the rock of faith that Jesus had predicted he would be after he had made his confession of faith. We see here that our failures are not really failures if we remember Jesus’ words and come back to him with repentance. Our failures are the opportunity for us to come back to Jesus and receive his wonderful grace and love even more deeply. It is really the opportune time to grow up in Jesus and become more mature in our faith.
However, from Peter’s denial we want to learn that we need to be watchful and prayerful and become less and less reliant on ourselves and our human strength and faithfulness to follow Jesus. And each of us must make sure we each have a personal faith that is committed to Jesus as our number one priority. Human loyalty and human faithfulness are good, but they don’t mold us into men and women of faith, only Jesus can do that. I remember at one staff conference attended that M. Samuel Lee, the founder of UBF, said that UBF is really nothing. He said, “What is UBF? It is really nothing.” This was a strange thing to hear from the founder and director of UBF. But what he mean was commitment to Jesus was most important and not commitment to an organization. What he meant was that God is using UBF because there re men and women of faith who have committed themselves to Jesus.
If we come to Fellowship meetings, group Bible study and enjoy participating in them and also in singing and other activities, that is good. But these activities are secondary to having a personal commitment to Jesus. If we don’t commit to Jesus, then we begin to slip away little by little like Simon Peter did . For example, when we find something we don’t like in UBF or if we have a disagreement with a coworker or two coworkers and can’t seem to get a long, eventually we just leave and drift away. We become like Peter who denied Jesus three times. This is why the key point is commitment to Jesus as our personal king and personal Savior. We can see Jen Slingland’s growing commitment to Jesus after she gave her Life Testimony at the Summer Bible Conference. She really wants to do God’s will and wants to put Jesus first even before her career goals. She made a small commitment to Jesus to give her LT and now it is bearing good fruit in her inner desire to live for God’s glory and to please God.
Part 2. Pilate’s reaction to Jesus.
Now let us see Pilate’s reaction to Jesus and his arrest. Pilate was a smart politician. At this time, Jerusalem was a political hot spot. This was because it was an area of unrest and trouble between zealous political minded Jews and their desire to make trouble for their Roman occupiers. The Jews wanted these dirty Gentile dogs off their soil. No Roman governor wanted to go there as their assignment. It was usually those who were demoted were sent there.
Let’s read 18:28-29, “Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’” Pilate seemed annoyed at the Jews. He seemed that he didn’t want to be bothered by this incident. In verse 31 he said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews however, were persistent in wanting to get rid of Jesus.
So Pilate personally called Jesus into his palace in order to find out about him. When he interviewed Jesus and found out who he said he was, Pilate seemed convinced that Jesus was innocent, that he had done nothing wrong. Look what he said in verse 38b, “…I find no basis for a charge against him.” Pilate even wanted to give the Jews an opportunity to release Jesus since it was custom for him to release one of the Jews who was a criminal at the time of Passover. However, they shouted back, “No not him! Give us Barabbas!” Barabbas was a man who had taken part in a rebellion.
Now Pilate, though he knew Jesus was innocent, tried to appease the crowds and have Jesus flogged, mocked and beaten. Pilate abused Jesus in order to save his own neck and his own political career. He thought he had appeased the crowd enough and brought out Jesus to them and said to them, Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis of a charge against him.” Then he brought Jesus out wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns and he said, “Here is the man!” (19:5)
Pilate thought that if they saw him like this, they would change their minds and let Jesus go. But it didn’t happen that way. Pilate’s un-commitment to Jesus and to the truth he knew that Jesus was innocent began to back fire on him. Instead of having some sort of remorse for Jesus seeing him in such a condition like this, the chief priests and their officials shouted “Crucify! Crucify!”
Pilate then became more afraid when he realized that they would not change their mind. They wanted Jesus to die (7) and became stronger in their desire to make this known to Pilate. At this time, Pilate should have exercised his authority as the governor and put down this angry crowd. He could have used many soldiers to crush and kill this angry crowd. However, he began to give into fear. He didn’t want a rebellion on his hands and he didn’t want this trouble to be reported back to Rome. He wanted to make sure he could get a good retirement benefit, so he tried to keep order.
But he could not keep order. He had to decide. In fact, we can say that Pilate himself was put on trial. But instead of putting his foot down and doing what was right, he only wavered and became like a yo-yo; going back and forth between the crowd and Jesus. He became very nervous and began to panic. He went back inside the palace and asked Jesus in verse 9, “Where do you come from?” Jesus tried to help Pilate make the right decision. Let’s read verses 10-11, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
However, despite this word from Jesus, Pilate could do nothing because he made no commitment to the truth when he was faced with opposition. The more Pilate pondered and wavered, the louder and more persistent the Jews shouted. They told him that he was no friend of Caesar if they let Jesus free. Finally, Pilate gave into their demands to have Jesus crucified. He thought he was innocent of this. In Matthew’s gospel, Pilate gets up from his judges seat and washes his hands with water in front of this loud and angry crowd and says, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility!”
But was he really innocent? Could he get off this easily? The answer is no. He was not innocent. He was the one who sent Jesus to be crucified. By rejecting the truth that Jesus is King of the Jews and King of kings, Pilate became infamous in all history as the one had Jesus crucified. He paid the price and his life ended in tragedy because of this one event. Pilate’s reaction and action shows us here today that not one of us can ignore the fact of who Jesus is. When we know who he is and take our stand on Jesus, but waiver like a yo-yo back and forth, then we become like one of those who sentenced Jesus to death.
Part 3 Jesus’ reaction to his arrest
Now let us see how Jesus reacted to his arrest and trial. His behavior is what we want to learn and follow. Also, let us see who Jesus is by what he says so that we may stay on his side and identify with him at all times so he may truly rule our hearts as our king. Let’s read 18:36 when Jesus stood on trial before Pilate. “Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Here Jesus teaches that he is a king who is from another place, not this world. The reason Jesus came into this world was to bring sinners like us the kingdom of God. When Jesus started his ministry he said, “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’”
The kingdom of God is for those who repent and believe. Then King Jesus can come and rule our hearts with his peace, his love and his eternal hope. He is a king, but not by force. He is a spiritual king who lives forever and reigns forever in the highest place. When we read the gospels, we see that Jesus left the glory of heaven and served all kinds of people. He healed those with leprosy and who has various diseases and sicknesses. He took care of an old woman whose back was bent and healed her on the Sabbath day. He drove out demons from a demon possessed man and he patiently taught the word of God with compassion to a crowd of over 5,000 people and then fed them with fish sandwiches with many left-over.
Jesus spent time with those who were lowly and despised by the world in order to heal them and plant in them the hope of God. He bore the weaknesses and mistakes of his slow learning disciples with humility and love. Through Jesus, men could know God and see God. There has been no other king like Jesus who came and laid down his life. Every king who ever lived served with selfish motives and for their own name and honor. Though they might have meant well, by their sinful nature they could not but have only served their own interests whether for recognition and self-glory.
However, Jesus had to pay a great price to give us his kingdom and to be our king. He had to give his life and shed his innocent blood. He challenged Pilate and us here to accept his kingdom into their hearts. Now we see his reaction to his arrest. He did not try to save himself. He did not react impulsively and emotional and lose control. He came to save us, even though we were the ones who crucified him with our sins. Even though we were the ones whom he knew would reject him.
This is incredibly shocking. How could Jesus do this? How could he come to save those whom he knew would condemn him? Why should he do it? Why should he save us? Why should he pay such a price, his own life? It was because he knew who he was and why he had come. And it was because he had committed himself to God’s truth, which is to save all men. This made him strong and determined to save us.
. Let’s read verse 37, “You are a king, then! said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Jesus’ words challenge us and ask us, “Whose side are you on?” Who do you identify with?” In this world, there seems to be an identity crisis. Who or what do you call yourself? When a census is taken there are so many lists to claim who you are. Are you Caucassian, African American, Latino, Hispanic, Native American, Asian,…etc.
Sometimes people don’t know or just say they are a mix of this or that. So they have an identity crisis in their hearts. Who am I? They might claim they are something when they are with one type of people and then something else when they are with another type of people. Are you for this or are you for that? Where do you stand? Are you Democratic or Republican? Are you Independent? Who do you identify yourselves with? These things are not as important compared with identifying ourselves with Christ and not identifying ourselves with Christ.
Clearly, there is a price to pay and a cost in order to identify with Jesus. King Jesus was very clear who he was and he was ready to pay the price. In 18:5-8, he did not fail to identify that he was Jesus of Nazareth. He said, “I am he” He knew this would lead to his arrest. Right here in verse 37, he does not deny being a king, even though it challenged Pilate’s authority. What Jesus is doing here is challenging us to stay on his side, the side of truth by listening to him and following his way. There is no middle ground or we become like Pilate. Jesus promises us that it won’t be easy. There will be hardships and difficulties. In fact he had earlier told his disciples in 16:18 that the world would hate them because the world hated him. This is the cost to know the truth.
But when we stand with Jesus, on his side and identify with a clear conviction, that , yes I am a Christian who studies the Bible and tries to live by it, even though people may think we are weird, strange, fanatical or behind the times, then we will know the truth and he who is the truth will set us free. We will have freedom from fear and anxiety. We will begin to taste Jesus’ kingdom in our hearts and have the peace of God. This is the reward that God gives us. I was always encouraged when Lawson Glenn began coming to study the Bible. This was because to come on Sunday’s meant that he had to drive at least one and a half hours one way. He did so because he has a personal commitment to know the truth and to listen to Jesus. God has blessed his sacrifice with many blessings.
Let’s remember not to be ashamed of Jesus and let’s make it our prayer to identify with him. This is because Jesus was not ashamed to identify with us and to die for us. Isaiah 53 describes that Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter. Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Isaiah chapter 53 describes Jesus’ suffering for us. According to John 19:2-3, Jesus began to suffer right here. Can you imagine a king suffering for his people? King Jesus did so. It was your sins that made him suffer. It was your sins that sent him to be crucified and it was your sins that crucified him.
I pray that God may help each of us to stand in the truth this Fall by making a commitment to Jesus and being willing to pay the price whether it be rejections, misunderstandings and persecutions. May God help you to commit to Jesus who suffered for you as your king. May God help you to commit to Jesus who loved you first.