As we enter into the next portion of John’s Gospel…the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus…what we’ll see is an astounding truth about our God and Father…that even in the light of man doing his worst, God responds with His very best.

We may sometimes feel or think or say that somehow it was us who initiated our relationship with God. That, you know, one day we called out to God and He noticed us of sorts…that He answered us…but the truth is…we answered Him. God the Father is the initiator, Jesus said that He is the Author of our Faith (Hebrews 12), the Bible says that no one comes to faith unless they are drawn by the Father (John Chapter 6)…in fact even today, if you are here or if you are tuned in on the internet or radio or Podcast, you are doing so out of response to what God is doing in your life…not the other way around.

You see, in these next verses we’re going to watch as Jesus, the Lord of all, equal in power and deity to the Ancient of Days, the One who sits forever upon the throne of all glory…we’re going to watch Him freely give of Himself to those that despise and refuse and reject…and betray Him. Just like I did…for many years…yet even so, He never left me, never forsook me, never stopped calling me to Himself, never stopped protecting me and reminding me that even when I was at my worst, I was still loved to the uttermost.

He proved it on this night.

On this night, as we get into the text, we see that Jesus had concluded His prayer to the Father as it says there in Chapter 18 Verse 1, “When Jesus had spoken these words…” and that prayer, the entire Chapter 17 of John spoke of what? His love (real, selfless love) for His family, for His friends, His disciples…as He prayed, “I come to You Father, I come to You Golgotha, I come to You Gethsemane, so that My joy may be fulfilled in them.”

And so when He had spoken these words, it says there in verse 1, “He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron.” Now get the scene. The disciples don’t know where He’s going. This is not a group and Jesus is in their midst. Understand He is leading them. And where is He leading them to? Fullness of Joy. At what cost? The cross. And He leads.

What manner of love is this? This world speaks of love and it displays selfishness. While a person falls into lust, not love…the world looks on and says, “wow how lovely”…a cheap counterfeit at best…true love looks like this…that even when they bring their worst, you offer your best. And the amazing part of that seemingly “bad deal” is that its not…it’s the best deal. Paul called it the “most excellent way” in 1 Corinthians 13.

Why? What? What do you mean? What I mean to say is that when you love someone not for what you can get from them, or not because of how they treat you…but really when you love them without condition, just as Jesus shows us here…even leading them to His own suffering…LEADING them…when you love in that manner, you’re unstoppable! You’re FREE in the deepest sense of the word and man joy is completed in your own heart. It’s other-worldly. It speaks of eternity.

Men, that is biblical spiritual leadership in the home. Ladies, that is the essence of how you are to love your husbands. It’s not this cheap discounted lustful love of the world and Dr. Phil and Dr. Ruth that say “compromise…you give a little and he gives a little and then happy happy happy…” That’s a sham! And it’s not even a Sham Wow! It’s a Sham Ow! Because at the center of compromise is self…man make Jesus the center and glorify the Lord in your marriage and watch love soar! Soar to a height as high as heaven! Lead her…husband! Right into your own suffering, in fact you’ll welcome it for her joy’s sake…if you are loving her as you are called to!

Lead your kids…dad! Right into your own suffering, in fact welcome it for their joy’s sake and their protection’s sake…if you are fathering them in such a way to glorify the One that put you in that position in the first place…!

Jesus leads them...such an amazing truth. And as He leads them, they pass over the Brook Kidron. I wonder about the eyes of the Lord. I wonder the revelation they would have given as He stood over the Brook Kidron on this night of nights. We see in Revelation Chapter 1 the eyes of the Lord as fire but on this night, no doubt they were heavy. Heavy with tears, heavy with betrayal, heavy with love…why the Brook Kidron though, Matt? Why as He looked down upon it on this particular night would He be so affected?

Remember, it was the Passover. In 2 Samuel 24 we find David numbering the people of Israel to ascertain the strength of the nation…something that God had already commanded not to be done as their strength and security and courage should be placed in Him alone. And so the result was great punishment and we find 70,000 men of the people dead from a great plague.

And so the Jews knowing that they were not to number the people, when the Romans wanted to know how many people were in Jerusalem during Passover, they could only do it by counting the sheep offered as sacrifices. Josephus, the Jewish historian, has that count in his writing…the count of the sheep at Passover. He tells us that over 256,000 sheep were counted. Even today if you were invited into a Jewish home and they played a board game or something in which they had to number the people off, they would do it something like this, “not one, not two, not three” and so on.

So what? What does this have to do with the Brook Kidron and Jesus looking upon it?

Understand that the Book Kidron flowed right at the foot of the temple mount and so this being the Passover…a quarter of a million sheep being slaughtered there at the temple…the Brook as Jesus led His disciples over it this particular night would be murky red from the blood of the sacrificial lambs being mixed with the water…

Jesus’ mind probably went back to how David, centuries before, crossed the very same Brook when there was a rebellion launched against him by his own family…his own child, Absalom. You read about that in 2 Samuel 15. I wonder if Jesus’ heart broke for His children just as David’s broke for his…as He looked down to see the blood there mixed with water…knowing that the cross lay before Him.

My heart breaks when my kids don’t like a gift I’ve given them…how much more from shear betrayal? How much more from utter rejection? Yet no doubt Jesus’ resolve to save you and to save me and to save us surged as they crossed the Brook Kidron on this night of nights…

And notice John says there in verse 1, “where there was a garden.” So interesting…the first Adam turned a garden into a wilderness, in a way…turned it into death and a context of alienation. But, the second Adam, because of His obedience, will turn this garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, into the very gate of paradise. The difference is simple. ‘Thy will be done’, in Christ’s case, versus ‘My will be done’, in Adam’s case.

Adam and Eve there in the first garden wanted to have life on their terms, supposing somehow that God was keeping their best interests at bay, because He was not going to give them the fullness of knowledge. Oh what a lie of Satan…what a deception of our flesh…God’s ways are so much higher than ours and eternally more pure, purposeful and without measure bursting at the seams with real love! And so we find the first garden, Eden, a context of disobedience and sin, and Gethsemane, the second garden, a garden of obedience and submission…and subsequently > life!

And what’s so cool here…that which was lost in the Garden of Eden is reclaimed in the Garden of Gethsemane…and who reclaimed it? Jesus! And what did we do? Nothing! In fact we’ll see in just a moment Peter tries to “do” something and Jesus says “put that sword away…it won’t get you anywhere…”

Chapter 18 Verse 2

•So John says that Judas knew the place but how did Judas know that He would be there? Because it was a time of trouble…and Judas knew that Jesus would be found in a place of prayer. I wonder do people know where to find you in a time of trouble? Would they look for you at church, studying the scriptures, pressing in on Jesus, in a place of prayer? … or somewhere else? Facebook? Twitter? Phone booth? Well we don’t have phone booths but maybe on the phone with this friend or that looking for comfort? > Jesus was found seeking the Father in solemn and strengthening prayer!

•Not me Matt. I can’t clear my mind. I don’t see answers to my prayers…where is your faith! Why are you and I so bent on seeing exactly what we expect to see and never being open to something greater that God wants to do?

•I heard a story of a place that was so cold that ice would accumulate onto the power lines. As the ice accumulated it would weigh down the wires and eventually cause them to sag and snap. This led to lots of power outages and lots of money being wasted to repair the lines.

•One string however was not breaking and so a team was sent out to investigate as to why these lines held up while all the others failed. Do you know what they found? A beehive…well how could a beehive keep the lines from freezing? Well they planted a camera and what they found was that bears would come and climb the power line pole to get the honey from the hive and in turn, shake the water from the lines.

•So they came up with an idea. Put beehives on all the poles. But how? They couldn’t do it from the ground up…it would take too long and would be too dangerous so they attempted to lower the hives onto the poles from a helicopter. But you’ll never guess what happened…as they flew over the lines, the air displacement of the helicopter blades blew the water off of the lines…and even today, guess how they prevent ice from accumulating on power lines? You guessed it…helicopters…

•An unexpected solution however effective and sustainable…just a dumb example…just a simple illustration to show you hey, it doesn’t always go as we planned it or expected it to go…in fact, hardly ever, but man without that truth there would be zero need for faith. Where can you be found when times are closing in? Waiting upon the Lord with heart and eyes and mind open to what God is doing…or praying for the greener grass?

•Well news flash (not hot tip) the grass isn’t greener on the other side…its greener where its watered…so cast your cares upon the Lord…for real sow in faith…and find Him faithful! He has promised!!

•Now between verse 2 and verse 3 of Chapter 18 there is an entire series of events that John leaves out…an entire scene that we find in Matthew Chapter 26 verses 36 through 46. In this scene we see Jesus in terrifying distress to the point that Luke, the physician, tells us that Jesus was sweating great drops of blood. A condition that we know as hematohidrosis in which the blood vessels that surround the sweat glands in a net-like form constrict under the pressure of great stress and then as the anxiety passes and returns, passes and returns, the vessels dilate to the point of rupture producing bloody sweat.

•And he leaves the disciples, goes a stone’s throw away and prays, three times…each time returning to find the disciples asleep…as God the Father was answering His prayer…”look Son, they’re without strength, there’s no other way…”

•And so why would John leave this out? We can only guess but it could be that John was heart broken that he could not stand, he could not stay awake, even for an hour but even he, like Peter, in his flesh, failed Jesus…He heard some of it though, some of the Lord’s prayers because we have them recorded for us in the gospels…but no one this side of eternity knows the depth of Jesus’ prayers that night…

•Also understand that each of the gospels have a united purpose to declare Jesus to us however they each take a different angle, perspective if you will. Matthew filled his gospel with facts of Jesus fulfilling prophecy targeting specifically the Jews and portraying Jesus as the prophesied Messiah of the Jews.

•Mark featured Jesus’ humanity and portrayed Him as an obedient Servant. Luke was written with such detail and depth for targeting a gentile audience. Those that were not familiar with Hebrew prophecies about the Messiah nor did they care about them. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus is that He came for ALL mankind.

•And finally John. John’s primary purpose, his picturesque portrayal of Jesus is in fact that Jesus was and is God. And so understand, John includes only that which supports His purpose, His calling…that we may believe (Chapter 20 verse 31).

•And so verse 3

Chapter 18 Verse 3

•So Judas shows up with a detachment. That word in the Greek is “speira” which actually means a “cohort” or a tenth of a legion. Now a legion was 6,000 troops and so Judas rolls deep. Six hundred troops along with the officers from the chief priests and Pharisees…why so many ya know? This Jesus, never hurt anyone…never displayed any offense or aggression towards any enemy…why so many? Were they afraid of the eleven homies in Jesus’ squad…I doubt it…so why so many? Not the number…but the power! The power to raise the dead. The power to silence the elite. The power to heal the sick. The power to inspire thousands and turn a nation on its head! The gates of hell roll deep…because they fear the light!

•And notice they bring lanterns and torches…why? Not because it was particularly dark…it was a full moon, there would have been plenty of light. They probably expected to have to search for Jesus. To have to beat the bushes because Jesus and His disciples would be hiding…but not so…not the case. And neither will we hide from evil if we are filled with the Spirit. Because we will not be filled with fear but with Power and we will stand for righteousness sake!

•Notice the next verses

Chapter 18 Verses 4 - 6

•Awesome. Jesus, faced with 600+ soldiers yielding weapons…coming for Him…yet He is in complete control. And He says to them “I AM.” No one can stand at the revelation of Jesus…every knee of the righteous will bow and all unrighteousness falls!

Chapter 18 Verses 7 – 9

•Amazing. Notice, Jesus’ last statement before being taken and it is a command. He commands those that have even come to arrest Him and what is His commandment…set them free!

Chapter 18 Verses 10 – 11

•Luke tells us that Jesus reached down, picked up Malchus’ ear, and placed it back on his head. Interesting that the last recorded miracle of Jesus was that He healed a wound inflicted by one of His followers. One of His disciples that was flailing the sword carelessly and inappropriately. And what does Jesus say? “Shall I not drink of this cup? The cup of suffering, the cup of love which reveals the heart and will of My Father?”

•As He spoke of the cup there at the last supper, Jesus said to His disciples, “do this in remembrance of Me.” If we would take more often the cup, we would harm much less by carelessly wielding the sword.

•We want to go get them! We want to go correct them and rebuke them and call them out and call them to task and just bam cut them into pieces and let God rebuild them…many have been hurt by that selfish type of ministry…

•What’s in your hand? An out of control sword causing pain or the cup of suffering that brings about humility and unity in the body of Christ? Do you think you’re the stronger because you’re the holy one…all the while you secretly condemn in your heart those that harm you? You’re not the stronger, you’re not following Jesus…you’re following you.

•What did Jesus do? He healed. He surrendered. He saved. And even today, He continues in that…