SERMON: “Faith on Trial” (John 18:12–27)
“Faith
on Trial” (John 18:12–27)
Series: “John: Life in Christ’s Name” #97 Text: John 18:12–27
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: March
30, 2025
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion: AM Service
I.
Introduction
A few months ago, a video went viral of an officer in Britain
confronting a man who was standing by himself on a sidewalk.[1] She wanted to know what the man was doing
standing still in that particular spot.
He said that he was silently praying for his son that he had lost. She expressed sympathy but continued to pry,
wanting to know the content of his prayer. For behind the man was a tree, and a distance
behind the tree revealed an abortion clinic.
She explained that he was within a “protected zone,” and she expressed
her suspicion that he was praying against the abortions happening behind
him. She then fined the man for the
transgression, and he was later criminally charged.
Persecution comes in many forms. Sometimes it comes with court cases for our
faith, leading to our possible deaths.
Sometimes, it comes in smaller ways, in the form of passing comments or
mockery. Sometimes, it seems that the
persecution is tangentially related to our faith, such as a prayer uttered in
the wrong place. Regardless of how it
comes, we’re faced with the question of how we will face it when it does.
We have a longer passage before us today, but John has penned
his account with an interrelated drama of persecution. Jesus had already warned His disciples in
John 15:18–20,
If the world hates you, you know
that it has hated Me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world
would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave
is not greater than his master.” If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will
keep yours also.
Now, Jesus is under arrest and will face the first of many
trials that evening, but Peter will also face questioning for his associations
with Jesus.
Faith under pressure reveals what we truly rely on — ourselves
or God. We see four tests in the drama
of this section. We’ll note the test of
the unlawful arrest (vv. 12–14), the test of a question (vv. 15–18), the test
of unlawful trials (vv. 19–24), and the test of temptation and conscience (vv.
25–27). Let’s consider the first of
these.
II.
First, the Test of the Unlawful Arrest (vv. 12–14)
So the Roman
cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound
Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was
high priest that year. Now Caiaphas was
the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on
behalf of the people.
This picks up right where we left off last week, with Jesus
allowing Himself to be betrayed by Judas into the hands of Roman soldiers and
Jewish officers. The commander of the
Roman “cohort” in v. 3 is here — a chiliarch, a commander typically
overseeing up to a thousand men.[2] He oversaw this arresting group.
They proceeded with the arrest despite Jesus’s miraculous
display. As one commentary notes, “Their
stubborn obtuseness graphically illustrates the terrible power of sin and Satan
to blind the minds and harden the hearts of the unregenerate (2 Cor. 4:4). They are literally ‘dead in [their] trespasses
and sins’ (Eph. 2:1).”[3] They bound Him though He was willingly going
with them; “Just as Isaac (Gen. 22:9) and the Old Testament sacrifices (Ps.
118:27) were bound to the altar, so also was the Lamb of God, the ultimate
sacrifice.”[4]
The Jews there show no insight to this, focused on breaking
their own rules. Later Jewish tradition,
such as the Talmud (Sanhedrin 35b), mandated that arrests leading to trials
occur in daylight to ensure transparency. A nighttime arrest reeks of secrecy and
injustice, signaling the corruption of those in power.
They take Jesus to the hub of corrupt power, Annas. He was high priest from AD 6–15, when he was deposed
by Rome. He still retained immense
influence among the Jews, who viewed the high priesthood as a lifelong office
(Num. 35:25), and he was the father to five high priests who succeeded him. The current high priest that fateful year was his
son-in-law Caiaphas, [5] who held
the official title from A.D. 18–37.[6] He was
a proud, ambitious, and notoriously
greedy man. Evidently a significant
source of his income came from the concessions in the temple. He received a share of the proceeds from the
sale of sacrificial animals; frequently those brought by the people would be
rejected and those for sale at the temple (for exorbitant prices) would be
approved as an offering. Annas also
profited from the fees the money changers charged to exchange foreign currency
into the Jewish money that alone could be used to pay the temple tax (cf.
2:14). So infamous was his greed that
the outer courts of the temple, where those transactions took place, became
known as the Bazaar of Annas…[7]
Of course, Jesus had disrupted him by cleansing the temple.[8] The other Gospels will note that Jesus will
then face two more Jewish trials under Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin (cf. Matt.
26:57). But Annas takes this moment that
only John records.
Speaking of Caiphas, he was not the best high priest,
either. Verse 14 reminds us of
Caiaphas’s earlier counsel to execute Jesus on the behalf of the people (cf.
John 11:50). As one commentary notes, he
demonstrated his utter ruthlessness by proposing to kill Jesus to preserve their
power.[9]
Ironically, his political calculation to preserve Jewish
autonomy under Rome unwittingly prophesies Christ’s substitutionary atonement. Divine sovereignty is at work despite these corrupt
human actors. They would be the unrighteous
cause of Christ’s condemnation and execution, all so they could protect their
own position of power in the world. Yet,
God is still at work, bringing salvation as Jesus dies on behalf of the people.
This was the first of many tests that evening. In a sense, Peter has failed that test by
trying to stop Jesus’s expressed will to be arrested. However, though Jesus secured His disciples’ freedom
from arrest with Him, Peter and another disciple follow Him. That will literally open the door for another
test, which we see next.
III.
Second, the Test of a Question (vv. 15–18)
Simon Peter was
following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high
priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was
standing at the door outside. So the
other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the
doorkeeper, and brought Peter in. Then
the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, “You are not also one of this
man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I
am not.” Now the slaves and the officers
were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were
warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.
There’s initial courage in Peter, though he ironically becomes
that disciple who follows and then denies his Master. Who is this other disciple, though? Some scholars debate his identity a bit, suggesting
a few names that don’t quite fit. It’s
most likely John, who “was known to the high priest” and enters the courtyard
with Jesus; his habit of omitting his name (e.g., John 13:23), his father’s
wealthy fishing business, and his possible priestly connections (cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History 3.31.3) make him plausible.[10] His familiarity allows him access, contrasting
Peter’s hesitation outside.
John goes back out and fetches Peter. He speaks to the doorkeeper — a slave girl — and
brings Peter inside to the high priest’s courtyard. This act of brotherhood gets Peter closer to
Jesus, but also to danger.
Perhaps danger is what Peter suddenly had in mind in v. 17. The phrasing of the slave girl’s question in the
Greek is interesting, as it expects a negative response. However, because she says “also,” she might
be associating him with John. Perhaps
she just phrased it this way to give Peter a polite way out of this.
Her out, however, proved to be too much a temptation. He takes it, saying, “I am not.” Where Jesus stands firm, Peter buckles under a
servant girl’s query. Where Peter
boasted in the past, he crumbles at the slightest interrogation.
This is why, in this hostile world, it’s so important to
sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. As
Matthew Henry notes here, “If he had
had the boldness of the lion, he would have said, ‘It is my honour that I am
so;’ or, if he had had the wisdom of the serpent, he would have kept silence at
this time, for it was an evil time. But,
all his care being for his own safety, he thought he could not secure this but
by a peremptory denial.”[11] We must
be prepared for both large attacks as well as such small ones.
Perhaps now embarrassed,
in v. 18, Peter then joins a group of slaves and officers. They made a fire; Jerusalem’s
elevation (2,500 feet), dry climate, and the early morning hour gave the air a
common chill.[12] Peter joins the crowd of unbelievers and
enemies, finding warmth with them while exposing himself to further temptation.
Note it was only a simple question that tested Peter’s faith. He’s vulnerable unless he repents, but that cold
and faltering disciple is a contrast to the warm and steady collected Christ
standing before Annas. Let’s consider
Him next:
IV.
Third, the Test of Unlawful Trials (vv. 19–24)
The high priest
then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to
the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews
come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to
them; they know what I said.” When He
had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is
that the way You answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly,
testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?” So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high
priest.
John left Jesus being led to Annas the high priest, and now
Annas is questioning Jesus. Perhaps you may
not initially see anything wrong with someone being questioned like this. However, it was not in proper keeping with
the Jewish Law. Even our laws require
probable cause and due process, but this smacks of establishing cause after the
fact, a “fishing expedition” in contemporary legal jargon.
His direct questioning also violates Jewish law. Annas should have already obtained testimony from
two witnesses before arresting and interrogating Jesus (Deut. 19:15; Mishnah
Sanhedrin 4:1); instead, he seeks a confession or incriminating statement without
corroborating evidence. Nighttime trials
were also forbidden, especially in capital cases, which should be in daylight
to ensure transparency and proper deliberation.
Oppression loves the darkness, though.
So, Jesus responds with an emphatic personal pronoun in v. 20:
“I have spoken openly to the world.” Jesus continues in the next verse to say that
people heard his teaching. Others
commented on the fact that He was teaching openly (John 7:26). His public ministry (e.g., Matt. 4:23)
refutes any charges of sedition. Unlike
secret cults, Jesus’ teaching was transparent, accessible to all.
As an aside, this is why Christians have typically taught to
avoid secret societies, such as the Masonic Lodge. Speaking of that, I remember visiting Salt Lake
City and seeing the architecture and the museum pieces that highlighted how
Joseph Smith incorporated some Masonic imagery into Mormonism; for instance,
there is a secret handshake and certain passwords he said people must know when
meeting God. There’s nothing secret about
true Christian teaching; Jesus taught everything openly.
It’s also worth noting here that Jesus subtly rebukes the
process. He is asking for witnesses per
the law. There’s nothing wrong with a believer
offering a reasoned and respectful defense as our Lord does here. He doesn’t speak evil of the high priest, but
neither does Jesus give in to the trap of self-incrimination. Christians may defend themselves in court, as
long as they are wise as serpents and gentle as doves. His calm defiance upholds justice without
disrespect (cf. Exod. 22:28).
However, this is clearly embarrassing for the high priest, so
a nearby officer stuck or “gave Jesus a
slap” (LSB). If someone gives you
a slap, there are many ways that you could react. You might think to yourself that this is not such
a good gift to receive from someone and offer to “return” it to the giver. However, Jesus is there to pay for our sins,
and part of His sacrifice requires enduring humiliation and violence before He even
gets to the cross.
Yet, this is more than offensive; this act was against the law. There were rules for treating prisoners. While Romans might have struck prisoners to
extract information, the Jewish judicial system incorporated the concept of God’s
image in people. Thus, they prohibited
extrajudicial violence, limiting physical punishment to after a defendant is
found guilty.[13] Later rabbinic tradition (e.g., Talmud
Sanhedrin 9b) invalidates confessions/statements elicited through coercion, meaning
physical force isn’t a legitimate tool for interrogation or even correction. The focus is on testimony and evidence, not
intimidation.
Of course, Jesus endures, fulfilling His mission (Isa.
53:7). Still, He does offer pushback
here, saying, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly,
why do you strike Me?” He challenges the
officer to prove guilt, modeling a reasoned defense. (This was not a time to apply Matthew 5:39.)
Jesus answered well. Annas
had no choice to send Him bound to Caiaphas and the next trial. As one commentary notes, “Jesus may be bound,
but he is hardly cowed by the events. … The images of victory in spite of
bondage were very important to the early Christians, who had little power in
the face of Imperial Rome and who suffered condemnation in Jewish synagogues. They are no less significant for Christians
who suffer today.”[14] Jesus is victorious, with the other two
Jewish trials revealing nothing wrong in Jesus; thus, John will pass straight
to the Roman trial after this.
Jesus faces injustice with dignity, trusting God, with the
power of God. Not only does He show us
how to endure, He reveals more about Himself. The self-identified I AM now moves to His next
trial, but sadly, one of His disciples again utters, “I am not.” Let’s turn there next.
V.
Fourth, the Test of Temptation and Conscience
(vv. 25–27)
Now Simon Peter
was standing and warming himself. So
they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it,
and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves
of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said,
“Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied it again, and immediately a
rooster crowed.
John left Peter warming himself by the fire of temptation! We read that they ask the inevitable, and he
has sadly not repented and steeled his heart for the moment. So, when they asked the question in the same
way that the slave girl did, he said, “I am not.” This was Peter failing his second test, as he slides
deeper into sin.
However, that is not good enough for one man in the crowd. In verse 26, we read that a relative of Malchus
was there, and what’s more, he witnessed Peter’s actions in the garden. His question is framed differently, expecting
a positive response; we could render it, “I saw you in the garden with Him, didn’t
I?” Peter has been made!
This might help explain part of the motivation of Peter’s
denials. As one commentary notes, “Peter
was in dire peril now of arrest himself for attempt to kill.”[15] This shows us how our past can come back to
haunt us, how the enemy of our souls will use our sinful actions as a means to
entrap us later. This is one reason it’s
important to strive to live a clean life before the Lord, and trust in Him for
the rest.
Well, Peter’s third denial triggered two events at
once. The first we read here in v. 27,
that a rooster crowed. The second must
have providentially happened as they were moving the Lord, for He took a moment
to look on Peter (Luke 22:61). This fulfills
Jesus’s prophecy (John 13:38) and pierces Peter’s conscience, leading to bitter
weeping (Luke 22:62).
Temptation and troubled consciences can be used as tests our
loyalty. Peter’s denials escalated
because he lingered in danger unrepentant. May the rooster’s crow call us to repentance
before it’s too late.
VI.
Conclusion
This was a large passage, but it juxtaposes Jesus’
steadfastness with Peter’s faltering. Faith
under trial reveals our trust — whether it is in self or in God. Jesus endured unlawful arrest, questioning,
and violence. Today, whether facing
persecution or temptation, let’s fix our eyes on Christ, the faithful One, and
stand firm in His strength.
Of course, Jesus did more than give us an example! He secured our redemption. Even though Peter stumbled, he found
restoration in Christ (John 21). No
matter how you have failed, know that Jesus has paid it all, and He offers you forgiveness
and restoration, as well.
[1] See, e.g., Daniel Payne, “British
Army Veteran Confronted for Silent Prayer Near Abortion Clinic,” Catholic
News Agency, Oct 16, 2024, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259887/british-army-veteran-convicted-of-praying-silently-near-abortion-clinic
[2] New American
Standard Bible: 1995 Update, (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., John 12–21, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago, IL: Moody
Publishers, 2008), 315.
[4] Ibid.
[5] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed., (Nashville, TN: Word
Pub., 1997), 1621.
[6] Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne
House, The Nelson Study Bible: New King
James Version, (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Jn 18:13.
[7] MacArthur, John
12–21, 316.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., 317.
[10] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible,
(Biblical Studies Press, 2005).
[11] Matthew Henry, Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume,
(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2038.
[12] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, The New American Commentary, (Nashville: Broadman &
Holman Publishers, 2002), 25B:231.
[13] Radmacher, The
Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, Jn 18:22.
[14] Borchert, John
12–21, 25B:234.
[15] A. T. Robertson, Word
Pictures in the New Testament, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Jn
18:26.
