Jesus Went Forth

John 18:1-18

As we approach the cross with Jesus, the events before the cross are very important. The little that Jesus spoke and the whole of His actions, tells us that He is Lord and also that He is our Deliverer (Messiah).

In John’s acct. what we read fulfills what he said it was written for: John 20:31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

Verse 1 has a lot of detail in it if you consider the whole counsel of God! John 18:1 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”

He went forth......undeterred by the event of the night and the unique view of the future that He had.

Judas’ betrayal would be enough to cause concern along with the knowledge of one of His’ denial.

He went forth in spite of knowing that the future would hold Jesus absorbing all the wrath of God for all the sins of those that will believe.

Physical death is not at issue here. We already know that Jesus has been praying that this cup would pass fro Him. Praying in agony, so much so, that His physical body responded to this inward agony.

Some have called it divine resolve, divine determination, or divine courage........No matter what you call it, Jesus moved forward to His own death and suffering, undaunted and did not hesitate.

Courage far beyond that of a martyr.

Jesus went forth with His disciples, which some writers have commented that to the world this would seemed a little daring.

His disciples were at their most vulnerable, Judas has left, trouble is coming, death for the Messiah is imminent........these moments leading up to this point and the moments after would certainly be any humans most vulnerable.......That is why Jesus has been talking to them and praying for them for the last 5 chapters.

The brook Cedron or ravine of Kidron...........This must of been a place of much thought and agony for Jesus.

First, His earthly father’s family endured betrayal at this same brook.....David fled Jerusalem because his son Absalom conspired with Ahithophel to take over the kingdom.......A lot of people formed alliance with Absalom.....so David fled Jerusalem, passing over this brook......2 Samuel 15:23 “And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.”

This must have been going through Jesus’ mind as He crossed over this brook into the garden.

Another potent scene would be in vision.......most accounts have this on very early Friday morning......if so, the passover sacrifices would have been taking place........most accounts of this sacrifices would state that the blood that was shed from the lamb and on the mercy seat would be directed out of the city to this brook.......at this time the water would be blood red.

There is a scene in the old movie Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) where Ben-Hur’s mother and sister were cured from leprosy as Jesus was crucified.........it shows the water flowing from Golgotha turn to blood.

There is not a record of how many lambs was slain in 33 AD, but there is a record 30 years later that 260,000 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover celebration.

Jesus knowing that He was to be the lamb of God would of had to see this blood in this brook crossing over it, because Hebrews 10:11 “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:”

Lastly, the Garden........all the gardens outside the city was normally protected by fences and gates....doors, if you will, and they would need a key to enter.

This garden, however, was very familiar to Jesus and His disciples......this is the place where He would come after the day was over in Jerusalem. A couple miles out, near to His dearest friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Judas would certainly know where the could capture Jesus under the cover of darkness.....Mainly because the chief priests (The Jews) would not dare take Jesus in the daytime and in public for fear of the people and how it would look to the Romans.

But Jesus had to be killed.....John 11:48-50 “If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.”

Caiaphas ignorantly prophesied of our redemption, but his thinking was that Jesus must die or else this people will cause and uproar and Israel would be destroyed by the Romans!

This brings us to verse 2.......we pretty much already dealt with this, but Judas knew where Jesus would be, because he had been with the Lord there many times.

This time would be a little different, because satan had entered into Judas and this was now to rid the world of this Jesus, which unbeknownst to them this was all according to God’s plan......

Acts 2:23 Peter said on the Day of Pentecost...... “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”

Verse 3......Judas came with a “band of men” this is interpreted “Roman cohort” which is approx. 600 soldiers, it could be anywhere from 200-600 men.....there was also with them officers of the chief priests, these would be the temple police.......and also the Pharisees.

The temple police would be the arresting officers, they would possess the warrant for Jesus’ arrest.

They wanted to be careful because they knew what Jesus had done and also that He had eluded them before miraculously.

More than that.....Judas told them in Matthew 26:48 “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.”

By the way, culturally in that day you never kissed your master on the face it was always on the hands or feet, you only kissed your equal on the face.

Verse 4a......Jesus knowing all things......this is a declaration that Jesus is God, He knew what was to come and Jesus’ response during all of it shows the love of God!

Knowing what was to come, Jesus went forth........this is not just in here for good reading, that is here in God’s Word to teach us about the life and the death of Jesus Christ.....

Him being God dwelling in the flesh knew exactly what was to come, He went straight to it.......as I said earlier, with divine resolve, divine determination, and divine courage.

This has had to be done!

Verses 4b-7..........Jesus here displays 2 things for us........His power and His love for His own! I might note that right before this Judas kissed Jesus on the face and Jesus asked him......Luke 22:48 “But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?”

Jesus asks the 1st time whom seek ye? This is a “just so you know” moment....

Just-so-you-know who I AM!

Jesus uses the tetragrammaton, .........The true name of God.......A name that no-one can stand.......This is a display of His authority!

“I AM”.....the He is added....

Knocked them down......Isaiah 11:4 “But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”

Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”

All those that had came against Him fell to the ground..........at this point you would think that they would give up......no......their hearts were hardened.........but it was always meant to be this way and no other......because the “same sacrifices can not take away the sins of the world only Jesus!”

This was done to let them know Who had the authority and as Jesus said in John 10:17-18 “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

This show of power was to the whole world from then to now that Jesus laid down His life of Himself and no one took it!!!!!

Therefore to show the pure love of God for mankind! Understand??

The hardness of these folk’s heart was great and probably intensified by God, because they got up and dusted them self off and when Jesus asked again they responded again “Jesus of Nazareth”

Someone wrote that they must have said that with the greatest of apprehension!

Jesus is now showing that He is giving His life that we might have life in His Name!

Verse 8-9..........He is also protecting those that the Lord gave Him!

You see by Jesus making them say His name, that is a legal situation......If they would of said Jesus and Peter, etc. they had a legal right to take the disciples.....but Jesus was their only target and by them responding openly that it was only Jesus meant that He was the only one on the warrant......

Therefore, protecting His own as He had stated in John 17:12 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

Verse 10-11.....Peter so overwhelmed by all of this acted according to the flesh again.........Remember....Matthew 16:21-23 “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

Peter rebuked Jesus........Peter loved Jesus but still his selfish love wanted to override the will of God and fulfill the will of satan.....this brought on the “get thee behind Me, satan”.

Peter overwhelmed and he will be again before Jesus’ passion is over......

He grabbed his sword and went to fighting and in one swoop he cut off a servant named Malchus’ ear.

Some say Malchus must have ducked that is why Peter only got his ear or either Peter just went wild with the sword.....don’t know that......

Jesus told Peter to sheath his sword.........this is the cup that God the Father has given the Son.

Psalm 75:8 “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; It is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.”

Isaiah 51:17 “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; Thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.”

This is what Jesus is about to give Himself to, freely taking the wrath of God for an entire sinful world, a cup of fury that if it was given to us would be for eternity and Jesus took that cup just that way......an eternity of wrath drank by Jesus Christ.....

With that in my understanding and belief, it makes this verse so powerful and beautiful......2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

In Matthew’s acct. Jesus told Peter “Those that live by the sword will die by it”..........Jesus was sparing Peter from certain death, if he would of killed someone there, Peter would of been on executed for that crime!

2 other things to add here from the other acct.’s that I find important........We might not be able to meet again and I don’t want to leave nothing out.......

After Jesus told Peter to sheath his sword, Jesus told Peter in Matt. 26:53-54 “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?”

12 legions of angels....imagine that.....1 legion in a Roman army was made up of 6000 soldiers......12 legions would represent 72,000 angels

In 2 Kings 19:35 “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”.......

That is 185,000 men that were killed by one angel of the Lord, imagine what 72,000 angels could do!

But that is not the plan, the Scriptures, God’s Word, states that it must happen this way! Stop fighting!

The 2nd thing was that Jesus mercifully, for Peter’s sake and Malchus’, put Malchus’ ear back on. Some say Jesus made a new ear and put it back on......not sure about how but He restored the man’s ear!

Verses 12-14........Now, let’s just briefly enter into the 1st part of the trial..........John seems to do a back and forth with Peter’s denial and the trial of Jesus.

There are 6 phases of Jesus’ trial.........

first to Annas, and that was to sort of establish a preliminary hearing that would come up with an arraignment based on an indictment.

That didn’t work, so Annas sends Him to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, which is the Jewish supreme court. They have a mock trial in the darkness of night, which is illegal, and they’ve already made up their mind.

But in order to give it the appearance of legality, they reconvene again after daybreak, and that final third stage is the public stage in front of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, Annas probably being there as well. So from Annas to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and then at daybreak back to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin – three parts of the religious trial.

After that, there were three parts of the civil trial. They sent Him to Pilate,

Pilate sent Him to Herod,

Herod sent Him back to Pilate – six different trials.

Annas was High Priest from Ad 6-15.........After that the high-priesthood was handed down to family.

It is said that Anna was one of the most corrupt high-priests.

Caiaphas was the acting High-Priest at this time.

Verses 15-18........Peter starts his sinning, his denial of Jesus............

The “other disciple” is most assuredly John, however you could put whoever in there, but John never refers to himself by name throughout his Gospel.

Some say John’s mother, Salome, was kin to Elizabeth and therefore Zechariah would of been his uncle so they say. Well, Zechariah was priest, so he could of be known that way.....however he was known John was able to get into the trial preceding’s and he cam back and got Peter......

This damsel would of been just a slave girl, opening and closing the door......She thinks Peter is one of Jesus’ disciples and Peter denied that he was.

Scared of a slave girl, one writer wrote, this man that cut off a servant’s ear amongst hundreds of men with weapons.

Probably, scared of the consequences of be associated with Jesus!