The Faithless & The Faithful One

My name is Justin.

I'm one of the pastors here at Sacred Mission, and it's my joy and privilege to be able to bring God's word to you today as we are just five sermons away from finishing up the book of John.

So we're in the thick of the Passion of Jesus, and at the start of Advent on December 1st, we will be ending John and beginning a series through Advent.

And so it's exciting to think about two years having journeyed through this book together.

And last week we talked about Jesus and his disciples leaving the upper room after the high priestly prayer, journeying to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he is confronted by this company of men.

And the emphasis of last week is that Jesus has full authority and power over the situation at hand.

That he is stepping toward the cross, not trying to flee it, but he is being faithful to the end of the mission that the Father has sent him on, to die for his people.

And so we're going to continue in that narrative this morning as Jesus is bound and taken out of the garden by the mob that was there.

Verse 12 says, So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.

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

It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.

So, standing in full power and authority in front of these hundreds of men, Jesus willingly becomes bound.

Now he has just rebuked Peter, right?

Who drew his sword and cut off the right ear of the servant priest Malchus.

And Jesus says, put that sword away.

This is the cup I'm supposed to drink.

And now this company of men step forward, both Romans and Jews, and they bind him and they lead him back to the city of Jerusalem, specifically to Annas' home.

Now, what we have to realize is that they're about a mile outside of the city of Jerusalem.

And he's going to be taken under guard on the same pathway of which he entered the city just a couple of days earlier through his triumphal entry.

But this time, he would not be coming into the city on the back of a donkey, accompanied by the praise of those who followed after him, who declared his majesty as the king of Israel.

No, this time he comes back into the city bound as a threatening criminal.

Not accompanied by praise, but accompanied by a mob of men bearing torches and lanterns and weapons.

And the mob leads Jesus to Annas' house.

Now, we have to take a moment to try to understand who this Annas guy that John is talking about here in the text.

You see, John tells us that he's actually the father-in-law of the current residing high priest Caiaphas.

Annas was the high priest of Israel just about 15 years earlier.

And even after he had been deposed of his position, he remained a very powerful figure within Jerusalem, and he was continued to be referred to as the high priest.

John even uses this in the text this morning that Jesus was questioned by the high priest, but he's standing in front of Annas.

He's not standing in front of Caiaphas at the moment.

You see, tradition held that the high priest of Israel would be in office for life.

But what Rome wanted to do is that they wanted to try and limit the power and influence that this office held.

So they established term limits on it.

Now, for the Israelites, they would view the high priest as one for life, that Annas was the true high priest.

But history tells us that not only Annas, but his four sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas all held the office of high priest.

So, while Rome may have tried to limit the high priest's power and influence through these terms, Annas retained that power and influence by keeping all of it within his family.

So John tells us that the mob takes Jesus to Annas first.

Probably because he was the one who was actually regarded by the people as the high priest of Israel.

In verse 14, John actually reminds us that it was Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Annas, who prophesied about killing Jesus for the sake of the nation of Israel.

We see in John 11, 49 through 41, where he says, But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all.

Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people.

Not that the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, John speaking of Caiaphas, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.

So this is what we have to see here as we're trying to understand the context of the narrative.

Jesus is a threat to the power and influence that Annas, Caiaphas, and the Jewish elite hold.

You see, there is great welfare for them to maintain the status quo that they have established and actually have been able to function within, even under Roman power.

You see, Jerusalem might have been Rome's, but they still allowed the Israelite people to function in a subset culture.

They had a lot of their own judicial system, their traditions and religious practices and so forth was allowed to be a practice as long as it didn't interfere with Rome's authority and power.

So not only did these men hold an office of inherent authority as the high priest, but they had actually enforced a system within the temple that profited their own personal gain.

So let's talk about two systems they established within the temple.

The first one was in regard to animal sacrifices.

You see, they exploited the Jewish people by establishing unjust standards of what was acceptable for a sacrifice at the temple.

So they established the standards.

You would bring your offering of a lamb or a dove or a goat, and they would inspect it according to their standards.

If it did not meet their standards, you would be forced to buy an animal that was on hand at the temple at a much higher price.

Now, let's think for a moment how this benefited the Jewish elite, specifically the religious leaders.

Remember, Jerusalem only has a standing population of about 200 to 250,000 people.

But at times like this, specifically the feasts and so forth, the celebration of Passover, Jerusalem could explode to two and a half million people, all coming to do sacrifice at the temple to celebrate this festival.

Not only did they put this standard in place, that was an unjust system, but to pay the temple tax, they would only accept temple currency.

So if you were traveling in to visit Jerusalem to worship at the temple, and you were required to pay the temple tax.

Now, this was established really to help maintain the temple facility, right?

And to care for the workers there.

But the ironic thing is that they would only accept temple currency.

So if you bring a foreign currency to the table to pay your temple tax, here's what they would do: they would send you over to a table where there was a money exchanger, and they would exchange your currency for temple currency at a very high rate, again, exploiting people's circumstances for their own gain.

Now, Jesus posed a great threat to this prosperous way of life.

We go back to John 2, and we see where Jesus actually violently opposes this unjust system as he is cleansing the temple.

He says in verses 15 through 16 of John 2, and making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade.

So not only did Jesus violently oppose their system in their eyes, Jesus threatened the entire temple and all that it stood for to the religious elite's power.

If we just move ahead to 18 and 19 of John 2, we read, So the Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for these things?

Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

So what were the Jews asking him?

What right, what power, what authority do you have to come in here and flip over these tables and release these animals and disrupt this system that we've established?

And Jesus, pointing to his own self, though they didn't see it this way, declares, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it back up.

And they say, Who are you to build this temple back in three days?

Do you know how long it took us to build this?

Who are you?

You see, Jesus wasn't speaking about the physical temple, but the temple of his flesh.

But to the religious elite, he was in opposition that posed too great a threat to their own affluence that came through the temple and its unjust systems.

And so Jesus was a threat that needed to be eliminated.

Now, as Jesus was being led under guard into the courtyard of Annas' home, we're told that an unnamed disciple enters in with Jesus because he was actually well known by Annis and his family.

Now, a lot of theologians and historians are gonna kind of debate around this.

Who was this unnamed disciple?

For us this morning, I want to humbly submit, I'm gonna say this is John.

There's a couple of reasons why I think that this was John who enters in the courtyard with Jesus.

Uh, first is that John never refers to himself by name in his gospel, he constantly is referring to himself in the third person.

Not only that, but John and Peter were pretty inseparable friends.

They're always banded together in some type of event or thing with inside the gospels.

And so for this morning, I want to submit to you that it was John who comes into the courtyard of Annas because he's well known by the high priest's family.

And this enables him to come inside without any difficulty.

But Peter, he isn't as well known and he needs some help getting inside.

And so John goes up to the servant girl who's functioning as the gatekeeper on this cold, chilled night.

And he works to get Peter in.

And as he's entering through the gate, Peter coming inside, the girl looks up at him and asks him, verse 17, You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you?

And Peter said, I am not.

So this is Peter's first denial of Jesus.

And he tries to kind of remain inconspicuous, right?

There's a lot of commotion going on, there's big events happening, but over into the side of this courtyard, there's a charcoal fire lit, and men standing around it staying warm.

And Peter, under the covering of night, goes there to keep himself warm.

And a short distance away, across the courtyard, Jesus is undergoing his preliminary trial.

It says in verse 19.

Jesus answered him, I've spoken openly to the world.

I've always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.

I have said nothing in secret.

Why do you ask me?

Ask those who have heard me what I said to them.

They know what I said.

So as Jesus is being interrogated by those who oppose him, what we see is that he remains strong and faithful to what he has taught publicly in his ministry.

You see, he has labored publicly to make the Father known, to reveal the kingdom of heaven, to affirm that he is the Messiah who Israel has longed for through the affirmation of signs that he has performed.

He has done nothing in private.

Everything that he's been saying and doing has been in the public eye.

In public spaces like the synagogues and within the temple itself.

As he sits in his earthly power, he tries to get Jesus to backpedal and to recant all that he has said.

This isn't working.

Jesus says, I don't have anything to hide.

And why are you even asking me?

This city is filled with people who have heard me teach, who have seen me perform miracles.

Go ask them.

Jesus has nothing to hide, and there is no fear in him in the face of one of the highest earthly powers and oppositions that he could face.

Now a guard who's standing close by to him chastises Jesus for his response to Anis, and he slaps him in the face.

Jesus responds, If what I said is wrong, why don't you bear witness about the wrong?

But if what I said is right, why do you strike me?

The calmness of Jesus, the strength of Jesus, is just on display here.

I feel like it's as if he's taking his finger and he's pressing on the very heart of these men, and he's just exposing the fear and anger that is seething inside of their chest.

You're the one that's lashing out.

For what reason?

You see, the strength and boldness of Jesus is evident here in this hasty and unjust trial.

Jesus knows he has done no wrong.

And he stands blameless before them.

There's no fear that could inflict him or to cause him to deny his message or his mission.

For Jesus himself, there was no greater fear than to be a disobedient son to the Father.

So this earthly power before him meant nothing.

He was going to be faithful to the end.

And so as we're looking at this text this morning, I want us to see that when we are faithless, Jesus is faithful.

When we are faithless, Jesus is always faithful.

You see, there was no earthly power, there was no fear of man that could cause Jesus to ever be faithless.

He persevered through every trial.

He endured every suffering.

To be utterly faithful to the reason that he was sent, to die that he would bring us to God.

To that end church, he was faithful.

And our confidence as Christians, our hope for those of us who are in him is established upon that glorious truth that Jesus is always faithful.

Throughout his trial and suffering, Jesus would encounter faithless men.

Those who opposed him and those who denied him.

But Jesus would remain faithful.

And their faithlessness could not deter the mission.

You see, his face was set like a flint.

And he was going to accomplish all that he had been sent to.

But for us, we can often be a very faithless people.

We can be a faithless people.

You see, there is only one who is truly faithful.

And that's Jesus.

And that should give us great confidence and hope.

You see, we see the person and work of Jesus often as a threat.

A threat to our prosperity, a threat to our comfort, a threat to our safety.

And each of us, we experience the reality of our own faithlessness in different ways.

You see, as the circumstances of life add stress, anxiety, fear, remaining faithful to Jesus becomes a challenge that our minds and hearts at times seem unable to actually sustain.

Our disloyalty can often cause us to suffer under guilt and shame with the disbelief that we'll ever be able to have the strength to come out from beneath of it.

Some of us we faithlessly oppose Jesus.

You see, we're like the mob in the Jewish elite.

We see the person and work of Jesus as a threat to our earthly welfare and prosperous life, as a danger to the comforts we enjoy, and so we respond by opposing him and his call on our lives to come and die, for those who are in him to take up their cross and follow after him.

No, thank you, Jesus.

That is too much of a threat to the pleasures I so desire to enjoy.

You see, we remain faithless because we see Jesus as the real opposition, the one that opposes the life that we so desire to have, the temporal earthly pleasure that you and I scrape and claw to obtain.

You see, when we want something bad enough, and Jesus stands in the way of it, we often see him as an opposition to what we truly desire.

Look at most of the sin that we commit in our life.

On the other side of it is a pleasure, a comfort, a welfare that our hearts want.

And in the middle stands Jesus.

And we say, get out of the way so I can have that.

Because at the root of that, we don't believe that Jesus wants or is able to give us a better life than we want for ourselves.

So he's in opposition to something that we truly desire.

And we oppose him in the midst of that.

You see, we believe that Jesus wants to take from us all that we perceive as good and enjoyable, all that brings us the pleasure of life.

We look at him before us and we cannot fathom that there could ever be something better with him.

And so we oppose him.

We fight against him to keep the white knuckle grip that we have on this life and all of its trappings.

Because we've convinced ourselves those things are better.

Some of us, we faithlessly deny him.

We faithlessly deny him.

So the way John writes this narrative here that we're in this morning is kind of like a movie that cuts from scene to scene back and forth.

Let's go back to the rest of the passage for a moment.

Let's cut back to the scene from Jesus' preliminary trial to Peter himself warming around this charcoal fire.

Verse 25.

He denied it and said, I am not.

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?

Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

So Peter standing around this charcoal fire talking to two different men.

And we kind of get a vantage point to understand the size of the men who were in the garden, the mob who were there to arrest Jesus, and the darkness of night they were covered by.

Because right here around the charcoal fire is a relative of the guy whose ear Peter cut off.

And he's like, Didn't I see you there?

Like, imagine your uncle there, and you get your ear cut off by this violent dude in front of you.

He's gonna be like, No, you were that guy.

Like, he must have been in the back row of these couple hundred men, kind of looking up in the darkness and said, I think I might have seen you.

Yeah, you might have been the one that cut off Malchus's ear.

You see, both times Peter denied Jesus when he was asked around that fire.

And Matthew records for us that after the last denial, Peter responded with so much fear and anger that it says that he called down curses and swore to them.

It's raging inside of him.

No, you don't get it.

I'm not with him.

I don't know him.

I don't know how strong and volatile of language I need to use for you to understand this.

Here's what Peter wanted.

Being there in the courtyard around that fire, Peter wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible while simultaneously remaining as distant relationally from Jesus as he could.

And I think that's a mark that we bear in our life at times.

I want to be as close to Jesus as I can, but when the rubber hits the road and there's some threat in front of me, I'm gonna choose to be as relationally distant from him as I possibly can.

Oh, I could lose my job for this.

I could lose my relationship with this person that I love.

I could be an outcast of my social circle.

I could, Jesus, I'm close to you, but I'm gonna be relationally very distant.

I don't know you.

You see, Peter didn't want to be a victim to the opposition and injustice that he was observing across the courtyard.

But the Gospel of Luke tells us that after the third denial of Peter, Jesus turned and looked at him.

If you can imagine the shame and guilt that Peter is now sitting under.

He hears the rooster crow, he remembers the words of Jesus, and as he turns to look at him, Jesus, having just been smacked across the face by this guard, looks at him and captures him in his gaze.

You see, I believe Peter would have had to have been overwhelmed by the presence of his own faithlessness.

Many of us find ourselves at times like Peter, faced with a hostile world who fiercely opposes Jesus and anyone who would claim to be his follower.

And our lives are often marked by moments where it feels safer to faithlessly deny him than to boldly declare our fidelity to him.

And so we struggle with this desire for self-preservation within a relationship with Jesus that speaks boldly and clearly to us.

Whoever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.

You see, church, our lives are gonna bear the marks of faithlessness.

Faithless moments.

Through us either opposing Jesus because he threatens our prosperity and comfort and welfare, or through denying him because we are faced with the dangers of being associated with him.

But praise God that even in the midst of our own faithlessness, Jesus is supremely faithful.

Jesus is supremely faithful.

You see, when everyone around Jesus was faithless, Jesus remained faithful.

And he was faithful to the very end.

When he was on the cross and he declared with whatever breath was left in his lungs, it is finished.

It was with the full confidence of a message and a mission that was faithfully fulfilled.

And this truth, if our lives are marked by our faithlessness, Jesus is eternally marked by his faithfulness.

Look at this in Revelation 19, 11, speaking of the King of Kings returning for his church, the bride.

Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called what?

Faithful and true.

That's him.

And in righteousness he judges and makes war.

This is our king, the supremely faithful Christ to a faithless people.

You see, but not only is Jesus supremely faithful to the message and the mission of the Father, but the good news for us church is that he is faithful to us.

In chapter 21 of John, we get to have this inside look at the restoration of Peter.

And it happens in somewhat ironic fashion around a charcoal fire, much like Peter denied him by.

And on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus pursues Peter and in tenderness calls him to come and have breakfast.

You see, Peter's hope was never going to be discovered or known in his own strength and ability to be faithful to Jesus.

Because Peter, like everyone else, was going to bear the mark of faithlessness at some point in his life.

Here at this breakfast on the beach, Peter discovers that his hope is in Jesus, who is always faithful.

This is what Jesus was revealing to Peter in the upper room as they were actually celebrating Passover.

We read in Luke's account of what took place there, chapter 22, verses 31 through 34, this.

Jesus saying, Simon, Simon, Peter, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, when you have been restored, strengthen your brothers.

Peter said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me.

Jesus was helping Peter understand.

Your hope is not in your zeal, your strength, your desire to be faithful even unto prison, even unto death.

Peter, your hope has to be in me who holds you.

I prayed for you, Peter.

The devil's not going to have you because I hold you.

And if we go back to Luke recording for us that Jesus' gaze was set on Peter after he denied him three times, I want to submit this to you.

I don't think Jesus was trying to heap on shame.

I don't think he was trying to rub Peter.

I told you so, Peter.

Can we think for a second that perhaps the Savior caught his gaze to let him know?

I have you.

I have you.

Your hope needs to be in me, Peter.

I'm the one who will hold you because I am the one who is supremely faithful.

You see, like Peter, for us who are in Christ, our confidence cannot be placed in our ability to be faithful to him.

Our confidence must be in him who is supremely faithful to us.

So we must be a people who hold fast to the very confession of our hope in him because he is faithful and true.

So my prayer for us today, church, is that we would be faithful to him who never fails.

We would be faithful to him who never fails.

I would imagine there's some part of us in this room who have had some type of relationship where we experienced another person's faithlessness.

And we experience that.

It causes probably one of two reactions from us.

It causes us to want to be faithless toward them.

Or it causes us to want to guard ourselves so we're never hurt or disappointed by something like that again.

But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is always faithful to us.

And so our response can be in strength and in joy and in pleasure and in delight of being as faithful to him as we can.

You see, his faithfulness to us should cause us in joy to be faithful to him.

He's never going to hurt us, abandon us, leave us, forsake us.

Because though he gazed upon Peter in the garden, remember the Father had to turn his gaze from him.

We are never abandoned because Christ was in our place.

This truth should give us strength and joy to be faithful to him.

And knowing that whatever loss we may experience in this life, whatever loss of prosperity or comfort or safety, it's incomparable to the gain of having and being had by him.

You see, there's an eternal glory in Christ Jesus for us, church, to obtain.

Any trial, any suffering that we might endure, it fades in the light of his loving gaze that holds us who are his.

And so our hearts should yearn to be faithful to Jesus.

Because, church, he is eternally faithful to us.

Let's pray.