The Den

The Denial and the Trial

Sermon #2

August 3, 2025

John 18:12-27

For 17 years, my dad was Cascade’s only plumber, and over the years, he had amassed many spare parts of useless and outdated “extras,” as he would call it. No matter how he justified it, he was hoarding useless junk. As he moved from plumbing to real estate, he finally came to the conclusion that he should liquidate some of the junk.

So, he decided to hire me (and I use that word loosely, not sure I ever got paid for any of my jobs) to clean out the shop. The issue was that my dad, over the years had collected cast-iron fittings. Whoever decided to make plumbing joints out of cast iron was a complete meathead! Each part/fitting weighed about 10 pounds each and each crate had no less than 20 parts in it.

My dad had dozens of crates stored at the highest place in his shop (three stories up without stairs). So, at 17, he told me to get the crates filled with these 10 ton parts from the attic to the ground and then sort them to sell them. There was an issue though. I couldn’t lift them on my own. So, my dad hired Jake to help me.

Jake was an animal! He was the center of our football team. He had arms like Elijah’s and was as tall as Pat. He was a beast! As he and I got to work, as young guys typically do, I lost interest real fast. The work was hard and miserable. Working gave way to messing around. I remember telling Jake not to worry, my dad won’t be mad that we only got three crates done. I also remember telling him that I would “cover” for him so my dad would not be mad at him.

Four hours later, my dad came back. We only had 3 or 4 crates done; let’s just say my dad was anything but happy. You could see the anger steaming from his ears in frustration. So, you know I did the right thing and took 100% of the blame so that my friend would not.

If you believe that, you are crazy! I totally let Jake take the entire blame! I just kept quiet like a coward! I knew that my dad could legally kill me, but could do nothing to Jake. So, might as well let Jake take the blame!

You know what made this so sad? Jake was about the nicest giant you could ever meet. He was like the perfect sacrifice to the wrath of my dad. What troubles me about this story, though is the look on Jake’s face as I totally allowed him to be judged and blamed by my dad for the lack of work done. You could see it in his eyes, “you said you would take the blame,”

I demonstrated a complete lack of courage in that moment. In a true act of cowardice, Jake took all the blame. Now, all stories and analogies break down. But betrayal is betrayal. Today we continue our sermon series on the arrest, denial, and trial of Christ. We see His courageous act of willingly enduring the underserved wrath of man and His father showing the commitment on God’s part to redeem His children.

In our passage today, we see two key parts of this process. We see the denial of man and the trial of a world system. Even in the face of betrayal, Christ is still saving the betrayer. John 18 reads like a straight narrative as John is giving you and I a play by play as if he was a reporter on a murder scene. The key points that John wants us to see become very clear as we break down this passage.

1.      The trial of men.

READ John 18:12-14

Nothing is lost on the Word of God. Christ was to be THE sacrifice of all sacrifices. It is not happen chance that he was to be tried and murdered as the Passover Lamb and would be killed for the sins of His children. But the imagery is so key. Look closely at this verse. Jesus was “bound”.

Many wonder, why bind Him? You have a “band” of (480-600) soldiers. Theologians assume that Judas wanted Him bound to keep Him from escape, as He had done several other times. Judas told them to bind Him in Matthew.

Most likely, Christ would have His hands bound behind His back and a rope around His neck. It is symbolic to Genesis 22:9, 10 where Abraham built the altar and laid the wood in order and BOUND Isaac his son…” Also, in Psalm 118:27 it reads “The LORD is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords; up to the horns of the altar."

Jesus was not just bound by Judas’s command. He was bound as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. He had to be bound as a perfect representation of who He is. Bound and arrested, the Lamb of God went to the trial of men and to the high priest. Now keep in mind the Sun had yet to come up. It was maybe between 3-4 AM.

Vs 13, 14 “13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

Historically, this can be a bit confusing. Who was the high priest and why have Annas the father-in-law in the mix? Who does he think he is? Well Annas was more important than we think. According to Charles Swindal, Annas was like the godfather of Jerusalem. Think corrupt mafia in the first century and you will have it about right.

The high priest was the highest office in Israel and essentially the king. Think President Bush, Biden, Obama. They are still titled president. Though Caiaphas officially held the office, many recognized Annas as the true power. Annas was originally appoint high priest in AD 6 but was deposed by Rome. But he remained head of a empire of organized corruption in Jerusalem.

He was the master of corruption. You come to do your mandatory sacrifice, you had to buy his sheep or the current high priest would reject it. The booths that Jesus cleared from the temple court, those were there on his approval and his gain. In short, Jesus was bad for Annas’s business. Thus, the hatred and why Jesus went to him first.

Financial hatred was a major reason for the arrest but the biggest hatred was spiritual. The hatred came from Christ’s claim of being God in flesh as real truth embodied.

Caiaphas was just as corrupt and horrible. Although the acting high priest, his puppet strings were being pulled by his father-in-law. But, in God’s plan of salvation, Caiaphas plays a key role. Remember that he had said back in John 11:50 that one man should die for the nation.

Caiaphas unknowingly was pushing God’s plan for salvation for sinners by saying prophetically that Jesus’s death would save a nation. But the callousness of that statement should strike us deeply. The depravity of a human heart to be so cavalier about the death of an innocent man should be troubling. We see the darkness and denial.

2.      The denial of men.

READ 15-18

Peter’s first denial should be a wake-up call to all of us in this room. We may say we would never act the coward, but let’s hold our judgement. We find Peter at the gate/door of Annas’s compound. The door was opened and closed by a servant girl. Notice please, our reporter had a unique ability. John or as he refers to himself “that disciple”, “another disciple” in vs 15 or “other disciple” in verse 16, had free access to the inner compound of Annas.

Not just anyone was allowed in because we read “since that disciple was known to the high priest” but Peter stood outside at the door. And again John records “So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest went out” and got Peter in. John was on the inside! But here is the key, the word “known” in the Greek is used to refer to a relationship of friendship.

Look back at Peter on the way in the door. The servant girl questions him “you also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” I often wonder, if John was “known” by the Priest, she would have to know John to get Peter in, and yet, the denial of Peter is the one we are focused on.

What is key to get, Peter is the closest of the apostles. Peter was selected by Jesus to feed His sheep, to be that key leader of the 11. However, today we see Peter’s greatest failure. Oh this isn’t the first failure, but this is the greatest.

What made this denial all the more painful is that Peter represents the depth of sin that rests in all of our hearts. Even as a called child of God, Peter demonstrates the sin nature of his inner man.

Before we throw Peter under the bus to far, our sin nature makes all of us the coward in almost every story. But, we will come back to Peter in a minute. John now shifts his attention to the trial.

3.      The trial of the system.

READ 19-24

During this process, our Lord goes through 3 religious trials and 3 civil trials. There were a total of six attempts to find some fault worthy of execution of Jesus of Nazareth. Why so many? Well if you can’t find any fault in the first trial, you have to keep going until you get to something that will stick. In doing all of these trials, there is a major issue. Look back at how Jesus responds to the questioning in 20-21.

We want to read this as if Jesus was being a bit insulting. But, He was not. In saying this, it would be like saying, this is a total violation of your legal system. Think of a defense attorney yelling, “I object, I demand a miss trial!”

There were no less than 18 reasons to call for a miss-trial from the Jewish Law.

a.       No trials were to occur during the night

b.       Trials were not to occur on the eve of the Sabbath

c.       All trials were to be public

d.       All trials were to be held in the hall of judgement, NOT Annas’s or Ciaphusus’s house

e.       Capital cases required a minimum of 23 judges

f.      An accused person could not testify against himself.

g.       Someone was required to speak on behalf of the accused.

Those are just 7 of 18. When Jesus gave His response, HE was calling them out on their own law, and that is why one of the officers struck Him. To which He responded with yet another objection. “If my objection should be overruled, state the legal precedent…I should not be punished for being right.”

Here is the point, Jesus was 100% perfect. Nothing of the trial and nothing that Jesus had done deserves any of this. In our passage we are only on trial #1. Annas was so corrupt that he was trying to try Jesus based on a law that he was all too willing to break all the while Jesus was perfect. There was no place anyone who had a brain could say, “well maybe they had a case, well maybe they have a point.”

In God’s sovereign providence, He presents the Son as a spotless lamb, no defilement was found in Him. This demonstrates that He is the worthy sacrifice He meets all the requirements of the perfect Savior. The only objection that Annas could come up with, was that He claimed to be the Son of God.

The troubling thing is that, although we have never committed a murder. None of us would be able to stand there like Jesus and know that they are 100% innocent. All of us would have broken the law. Some of us (me) would only need one trial, not six.

4.      The denial of a friend.

Jake was my friend. He was big enough to fold me up like a pretzel, but he was the nicest giant that I have ever met. When I sold him out to my dad, I wondered if my relationship would change at school on Monday.

But my betrayal of Jake was nothing to what Peter was going to do. We already read that he denied Jesus to get into the courtyard. But Peter’s next denial makes it all the more dark. Okay, you denied Him to get into the door, but now two more times?

READ Vs 25-27

For three years Peter had been invested in. Peter had sat with Jesus in the dirt with Him around many a campfire. Peter had eaten the same fish, put up with the same trials, dealt with the same difficulties, been protected time and time again by His Lord, been encouraged, corrected and demonstrated great love to. Peter was considered a true follower, the leader of the 11 and even the leader of the inner 3.

It is no wonder that what he does here cuts the deepest. In the three denials, Peter demonstrates fear, cowardice and even pride (Lord, that will never happen, I would never deny you). I guess you could say that the first denial was a fluke. But the second and third is a determined commitment to deny the Son of God.

What makes it so troubling and heinous is what it represents. Sin is always at the door, always looking to destroy and always wanting to corrupt. In Gen 4:7 God warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Why do you think Jesus told the disciples in the garden before His arrest in Matthew 26 to pray lest you fall into temptation? Our Lord knows the power of sin in the heart. He knows that this sin has caused all of us to be dead in it. He knows that it has murdered the soul of man, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.” Eph 2:4

Even when we are doing “good” things, sin is always with us. Even when we follow Christ while others scatter, Peter shows us that sin is still a cancer lurking under the surface (sin lurks at the door seeking whom it may destroy). Even in prayer, sin crouches at the door seeking to destroy. Have you noticed this? Sin is always brewing, and yet, in His mercy, when our sin leads to our betrayal of Him, He is still about to go to the cross.

We should not be shocked or too hard on Peter. Apart from the work of the HS, we all would be at that fire pit denying Christ. Through the HS, Peter is kept to 3 times of denying Him, not something worse.

5.      Stand in the courage of the LORD.

If it was not a work of God, it could be you, me or any of us in this room. What kept Peter from going and finding a rope like Judas? It was the work of the one whom He denied. Peter was prayed for and although He fails, God does not lose not one!

Last week we talked about the courageous act of our LORD. Our Lord knows the sting of betrayal. He also knows our hearts better than ourselves and all of the hidden acts of betrayal just below the surface of our lives.

This is personal reflection time. As Christ courageously walks before you and absorbs the justified penalty of your sin, at what times did you play the denier? Allow me to drill down on this. The sin that we entertain, play with in our minds and then act on, are acts of betrayal. While He was being tried for something He did not do, we go free for acts that we did do. When we act in fear to the weight of our sin and act the cowards, He is courageously walking into the trials of death.

Here is the Good news from this. While we are dead in our sin, acting in fear and rebellion, Christ, being truly God in flesh, came to pay the penalty of our rebellion and shame. This act of being our sacrifice allows us to be saved from the penalty of sin and death. If we are now made new, we should no longer be ruled by fear, cowardice, or pride! God gives us a new spirit of strength and courage to stand against sin and shame.

God never gives His children a spirit of fear, rather boldness. If you are a believer, you are already equipped with a boldness for Christ. 2 Tim 1:7 7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Do you know what that word “fear” is in that verse? Deleeia: means cowardness.

Was Peter a believer before his denial? Of course he was! So, the difference between Judas and Peter? Christ! After the denial, what Jesus did for Peter is nothing short of remarkable! Christ restores him. Luke 22:31

31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Even before it had happened, Christ had restored Peter. Church, Christ restores us when we fail, when we deny and when we fall flat on our faces. But, when we are restored, what are we to do? “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” The expectation is:

a.       GO and help your brothers: Time/Talent/Treasure. We are to courageously go and help others who have fallen flat!

b.      Be courageous as He is courageous! He did not give us a spirit of fear! Rather courage!

c.       Be assured! He restores His children. He has “lost not one!” He has secured you in His hand!

Getting back to Jake. When I got to school on Monday, I kind of expected him to fold me up and stuff me into his gym locker (he totally could have). But, instead he did the unexpected. He did not treat me any different. He was still my friend. I think he understood that I totally betrayed him because I was truly afraid of my father. I think he got it and it was just something we both understood. I don’t know where Jake is today, but if I saw him now, I would tell him I am sorry. And, I would thank him for being a true friend that day.

I would also tell my Lord, I am sorry I have played the coward. Thank you LORD for restoring me! Thank you LORD for not losing me!