All He Does Is Win! Series

All He Does is Win!

Text: John 18:12-27

Before we get into our text this morning, I’m just going to tell you that what we’re going to be looking at sounds like something that could be pulled from our modern-day news cycle. Solomon said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” So, the next time someone says to you that the Bible isn’t relevant for today – share this sermon with them.

We’re in John chapter 18 this morning, and we’re going to be looking at verses 12 through 27.

(READ John 18:12-27).

Now what John has done here is completely demolished Peter. Not out of a maliciousness, or evil intention. But he’s just shown us, and everyone else, that Peter – as influential as he was in the early Church – was a sinner just like everyone else. He may be influential, but he’s not flawless. He’s not holy. He’s not without sin. In-fact; this is where Peter really blows it. And again, John’s not trying to throw Peter under the bus. He’s showing us that if not for the grace of God, and a faith founded on the knowledge and proper understanding of the truth… then even someone as bold, and boisterous, and influential as Peter is nothing more than a cowardly sinner. And it’s set in direct contrast to Jesus. Jesus – facing all these false accusations and allegations. Knowing that the whole thing is a sham, a mockery of truth and justice. And yet He willingly endures it. Knowing that the end result will be the cross, or rather, I should say, what the cross will accomplish. But He does not sin, and He submits to the eternal plan of redemption, willingly… even though He could have easily said, “Nope! Let’s just destroy the whole world again, like we did back in Noah’s day.”

So… here’s where this thing begins to look like a modern news cycle.

Jesus has celebrated Passover with the disciples. He’s prayed His High Priestly Prayer, and He and the disciples have gone out into the Garden of Gethsemane. And Eric brought up a great point to me last Sunday… Jesus could’ve easily remained in town – but that might have resulted in a riot, and a lot of people would have been killed or hurt. He also could’ve left town, got away from their jurisdiction, and put an end to their evil plans. But instead, He went to the Garden, again – knowing that Judas would know that’s where He went.

And out text tells us that the soldiers came (Both Roman soldiers, and Jewish temple guards, along with temple officers) and they arrested Jesus. And not only did they arrest Him… they bound Him?

Now why did they bind Him? He wasn’t resisting arrest or anything like that.

Well part of the reason they did is because He had just knocked all of them to the ground with the Word of His mouth just a few seconds earlier… but also, so that the Word of God would be fulfilled.

In Psalm 118 – the Psalmist talks about how the Festal Sacrifice was bound with cords. And God even gave us an earlier picture of this in Genesis 22:9, where Abraham bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar.

So, God’s Word is being fulfilled… and Church – God’s Word is always and will always be fulfilled. If He says it, it will come to pass!

Now after Jesus is bound, He’s led away to Annas, the father in law of Caiaphas – who was the High Priest. Now there’s some confusion about this for some folks, because other places in Scripture seem to say that Annas was the high priest, but here it says Caiaphas was. But it’s not a contradiction. You’ve got to understand the legal and political realities that were going on at that particular time.

Legally speaking, the Jews could only put someone to death for religious purposes – like blasphemy… and in order to do that, they would stone them. But sometime prior to this, the power to execute a civil criminal was taken away from the Jews by the Roman government. So, judgment for crimes like murder, and treason were to be executed by the Roman officials. Not only that… just a few days before this the crowds were singing “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”

It would’ve been a bad idea for them to carry out the sentence of execution.

So, they take Jesus to Annas’ house.

Now, Annas had been the high priest of Israel from 6 A.D. to 15 A.D., and he very well may have been in the lineage of Aaron – Moses’ brother. But in 15 A.D. Valerius Gratus, the Roman governor before Pilate removed him from office. So you have this guy who held a position of power and authority, but he’s been removed from office. Now to the Jews, they probably… most likely… still saw Annas as the rightful high priest – because according to Jewish law, that was a position they were to hold for life.