John Part 39
Notes
Transcript
Tonight, we’re continuing in chapter 18
Jesus has just been arrested
Recall, he said “I AM”
when they came looking for him
and Peter has just denied Jesus the first time
and he said in verse 17 “I AM NOT”
And there is this parrallel between Jesus who is the IAM
and Peter who is not the IAM
Jesus is going to go through 3 trials
Peter is going to go through 3 denials
And then Peter is going to be asked if he loves Jesus 3 times
3 Trials,
3 denials
and 3 questions about love
all interwoven here in John’s version of the Gospel
Let’s look at verse 19
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
Now, the one being referred to as “high priest” here
is Annas, who was the previous high priest
remember, they were fired from their job
whenever someone started a riot
and this was the old high priest
And the first one to question Jesus
At the end of this questioning
Annas will send Jesus to see the current High Priest
Whose name is Caiaphas.
So, Annas asked him about his followers
and he asked him about his teaching
20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.
21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.”
So, Jesus responds to Annas
he basically says, you know what my teaching is
I taught out in the open for all to hear it
So, why don’t you go ask the ones
who have heard me what I said
So, Jesus is basically saying...
if you wanted to know what my teaching was
you should have came and heard me preach
and if you didn’t want to hear me preach
then perhaps you should ask someone who did hear me preach
If you think about it,
what sense does it make to ask Jesus what he was teaching
if they didn’t want to hear him when he was teaching it
then why would ask him to teach it all again to them in the middle of the night
One of the officers who arrested Jesus
didn’t take too kindly to this wise response
22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”
In other words
Jesus is asking why speaking the truth was met with violence
and this is foreshadowing the cross
where Jesus would suffer for simply speaking the truth
It seems Annas didn’t have much more to say after this remark from Jesus
So, he sends him off to the real High Priest
Caiaphas, his son-in-law
24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
It is very likely that Caiaphas lives in the same estate as Annas
This is probably why the 3 denials of Peter seem to take place in the same courtyard of the same home.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
This is denial number 2
Jesus said Peter would deny him 3 times before the rooster crowed
and so, it is still very early in the morning
the same night Jesus was arrested in the garden
Here, Peter says for a second time “I AM NOT”
John seems to be make it very clear
that there is a contrast between the I AM
and the I AM NOTs
but that won’t disqualify the I AM NOTs
from feeding his sheep when the I AM is gone
26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”
So, here Peter is asked a 3rd time if he was with Jesus
27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
Right when Peter denied Jesus the 3rd time
the rooster crowed
And that sound reminded Peter of the words of Jesus
another gospel tells us that Peter wept bitterly when he heard that rooster
That was the 3rd denial
and here comes the 3rd trial
John doesn’t devote time explaining the events of the 2nd trial
Only that it happened at the house of Caiaphas
The other gospels tell more details about that trial
Jesus is asked there if he is the Son of God
and he says “I AM”
and that was all they needed to hear to send him to Pilate
the governor from Rome.
John picks back up at Pilates house
28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
29 So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
John makes is very obvious that Pilate does not see any wrong in Jesus
Pilate seems genuinely confused at the Jew’s accusations
He really wants to let Jesus go free
But the Jews insist on having him crucified
So, he asks… What accusation do you bring against this man
In other words… why is he here again?
He seems nice to me
30 They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.”
So, they didn’t actually make an accusation of evil
that simply said, trust us,
he is doing evil
otherwise we wouldn’t have brought him here
The trial at Caiaphas’s house
which John omits
had several false witnesses trying to find something they could pin to Jesus
and they couldn’t find a single thing
that is, until they asked him if he was the Son of God
and Jesus said, I AM
so, for what they considered blasphemy
they sent him to Pilate
but we have to understand
that Jesus didn’t commit blasphemy
The Bible is clear, that Jesus was without sin
The only sin they thought he committed was blasphemy
but He couldn’t have commited blasphemy
because Paul says in…
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So, if Jesus never sinned
Then when he said I AM
he wasn’t lying
and he wasn’t blaspheming
That means Jesus admitted that he was God
The great I AM.
Now, to the Jews, that was a grave sin
Making yourself equal with God
because God has no equal
But to Pilate
this didn’t matter
It would be like someone today claiming to be Zeus
We’d be like… ok… who cares
As long as your not hurting anyone
you can pretend to be Zeus all you want
That’s what it sounded like to Pilate
when they told him the only thing Jesus did
was claim to be YHWH
the I AM
So, Pilate doesn’t seem to care about this type of sin
because to him
it wasn’t really a sin
He believed in many many gods
and didn’t care much about people claiming to be a god
31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.”
So, Pilate says, if you have a problem with Jesus claiming to be God
then you take him and judge him by the Jewish laws
because there isn’t any Roman laws about this sort of thing
But the Jews respond, we can’t judge him with our law
because we are not allowed to put him to death.
Now, according to Jewish law,
they certainly had a right to put Jesus to death for blasphemy
but that death would have been a death by stoning
and based on historical evidence
this type of capital punishment was not allowed to be carried out by the Jews anymore
They had to bring all capital punishment requests to the Roman Governor
which is why they brought Jesus to Pilate instead of stoning Jesus on the spot
But now they have a problem
Pilate has the authority to execute Jesus
but claiming to be a Jewish God is not an executable offence in Roman law
It was an executable offence in Jewish law
but the Jews had their hands tied by their Roman overlords
Now, some scholars think the Jews could have executed Jesus
if the Romans gave them permission to do so
So, Pilate goes to talk to Jesus again
to see if he has done anything worthy of death
and the questioning is around whether or not Jesus is a King
If Jesus claiming to be a king
Then Pilate might have reason to execute him
under Roman laws
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answers his question with a question…
34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
It seems Jesus knows Pilate doesn’t think he is a King
35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
Pilate isn’t dumb
He realizes that if Jesus really was a king
the Jews wouldn’t be turning him over to the Romans to be killed
It would be more logical
that they would protect him
keep him hidden
and wait for the day when they could overthrow their oppessor
and put Jesus on the throne
So, it isn’t adding up
And Pilate says “What have you done”
Not, “Who are you”
but “What have you done”
Meaning… I must be missing something here
Because I know you aren’t a king
so what did you really do to cause these Jews to want you dead.
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
So, Jesus is admitting to being a king indirectly here
but specifies that his kingdom is not natural
it is not of this world
and therefor his kingdom does not compete with the Roman Kingdom
Otherwise there would have been a war between them
but they didn’t fight at all
Now, the kingdom being referred to here
is the same kingdom Jesus talked about back in chapter 3
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So, when Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God to the Jews
and even to his own disciples
they didn’t really understand
so, there’s really no way for Pilate to comprehend what Jesus is saying
Jesus might as well have said he was the King of some other galaxy
what out in outer space
and perhaps that is what it sounded like to Pilate
when Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world.
37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
It seems like Pilate is scratching his head when he asks
So… you are a king?
Jesus probably confuses Pilate more when he says
“He came into the world”
So, yes, I’m a King
but my kingdom is not of this world
and I came into this world
to tell people about the truth
38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.
The question, What is truth
seems to be unanswered
I think it was a rhetorical question
and Pilate was in the middle of trying to determine what was true about this situation that he’s been asked to mediate
It doesn’t seem to him like Jesus has done anything evil
and yet the Jews are insisting that he has
So, Pilate simply says. What is truth?
almost as if to me, he is asking,
what is really going on here?
Why do they really want to kill this innocent man
So, he goes back outside and tells the Jews
I find no guilt in him
And Then Pilate thinks of a way to let Jesus go
since he believes Jesus is innocent
Pilate says…
39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
Now, it seems Pilate was calling him “King of the Jews”
in a sarcastic way
because he didn’t really believe he was a real king
otherwise, he would have had reason to kill him
But here, Pilate is offering to let him go
to be the one who should be released
due to this custom the Jews had annually
during the passover
that they could apparently get one prisioner pardoned
But the Jews didn’t want Jesus to be pardoned
40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.
Instead of pardoning Jesus
The Jews yell out
Let Barabbas go
and crucify Jesus
It says, Barabbas was a robber
This word can mean robber
but it can also mean a revolutionary
Someone who starts riots
And, ironically
That is what they were worried Jesus might do
So, they asked for a real rioter to be released
and for Jesus to be killed
So, Jesus is going to suffer the sentence of death
for the crime of another man
A man who actually deserved death
was set free
and a man who deserved to be free
was put to death
And this is another gospel within the gospel
Jesus takes the place of the man who sinned
And Jesus took the place of all of us
and all of our sins
when he died on the cross.
Something else that is interesting about this verse.
Barabbas is a name
that means Son of Abba
Bar means Son
And Abba means Father
So, Barabbas means So of the Father.
So, the Son of the Father is set free
and the Father in the Son takes his place
Likewise, we are all called Sons of God the Father
And he took our place.
This is a direct parralel to Gen ch 22
When Abraham laid his son down on an altar
and raised the knife sacrifice him
but God stopped him
and provided a ram in the thicket
as a substitute
Now, Abraham said before they went on that mountain
that God would provide himself a lamb
But instead of a lamb
God gave them a Ram
a Ram is the father of the Lamb
So, again.
Barabbas was set free
The son of the Father
and Jesus took his place
The Great I AM
YHWH in the flesh.
We are all Barabbas.
And we should thank God every day
for taking our place on that cross
Because it was a cross he did not deserve
Barabbas did deserve it
and we deserved it
but Jesus loved us so much
he took our place.
so that we could one day go to his place
the place he said in chapter 14
that he would go and prepare for us.
