WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.540 And if you have your Bibles, turn with me to John chapter 18. If you're using a church Bible, 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:15.120 ! That's on page 1086. We have finished our series in Revelation. Now we're coming to another 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:22.900 ! part of the Bible that John wrote, this time his gospel. We're following the journey to the cross 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:33.619 as we move towards Easter, and we begin here in chapter 18, verses 1 to 11, where we come to Jesus' 00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:41.679 arrest. And with God's help, we'll see beauty beyond betrayal in this section. So let's again 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:48.739 hear God's Word. When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:54.359 Kidron Valley. On the other side, there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. 00:00:54.840 --> 00:01:00.880 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:07.920 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:15.840 priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons. Jesus, knowing 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:24.280 all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, 00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:33.260 they replied. I am he, Jesus said. And Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. When Jesus 00:01:33.260 --> 00:01:42.140 said, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, who is it you want? 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:51.019 Jesus of Nazareth, they said. Jesus answered, I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, 00:01:51.099 --> 00:01:58.819 then let these men go. This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:08.680 lost one of those you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:19.099 servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Jesus commanded Peter, put your 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:30.680 sword away. Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? We'll leave our reading there. So as I 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:37.819 said, this gospel, written by the same friend of Jesus, the same apostle who wrote the book of Revelation, 00:02:37.819 --> 00:02:46.299 one of Jesus' inner circle of three, James and Peter and John. So what we have here is eyewitness history, 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:53.180 but from a particular point of view, it's noticed of John as he writes his gospel that he has a 00:02:53.180 --> 00:03:02.340 particular interest, some have said, in the soul of Jesus, and especially how Jesus reflected on his 00:03:02.340 --> 00:03:15.120 identity as the Son of God. And we'll see that here in this section. We come to this scene of a terrible 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:25.520 betrayal. We discover here among the disciples who have spent three years or so with Jesus, there is 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:37.040 a traitor. Now, I don't know how many of us watched the TV show The Traitors. I missed that. I did a 00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:41.280 little bit of homework, watched a few minutes of it. I know enough to know it was a game based on 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:50.080 deception, definitely a level of skill, learning who to trust, who not to trust. If you watch the show, 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:56.720 I guess you know that you had to be really ruthless in order to survive. Could the faithfuls find the 00:03:56.720 --> 00:04:04.660 traitors to win the cash prize, or would the traitors win out? It's become a bit of a global phenomenon. 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:11.040 It's here in the UK, it's in the States, it's in Australia and other places as well. It works as a 00:04:11.040 --> 00:04:18.400 concept because I think we know that betrayal is wrong, that playing the traitor is wrong, 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:27.359 but it kind of works as game show. But we know in our own experience, I imagine, 00:04:28.359 --> 00:04:36.599 the betrayal is no game. It is no joke. When you share a secret with someone and you discover 00:04:36.599 --> 00:04:43.099 your confidence is broken. And when you thought someone was loyal to you and you discover they've 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:49.060 switched sides and have turned against you. And when you place your hope in a particular relationship 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:58.180 and you find that the other breaks that relationship. Betrayal, the theme of so many 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:06.740 classic songs through every decade, Marvin Gaye, Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, all of them recognizing that 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:14.319 betrayal hurts. We know this. There is a shock. There is a sadness. It can really affect our ability 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:20.540 to trust other people when we experience it. And then we can think differently. We can think about 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:28.199 history and history records some terrible, infamous betrayals. Think about the story of Julius Caesar, 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:35.000 44 BC. Maybe we learned this in school. He was assassinated by a group of Roman senators, 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:41.459 which famously included his former friend Brutus. And it's recorded that Caesar's last words were, 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:52.360 eh, too, Brutus, and you too, Brutus. Or here in Britain, Guy Fawkes, 1605, wanting to have a Catholic 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:59.300 king back on the throne working together with the Spanish. And it had this failed plot to blow up the 00:05:59.300 --> 00:06:05.720 parliament buildings. And every year we remember that attempt at terrible betrayal with bonfires 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:13.240 night, with fireworks to remember. But without question, the most infamous betrayal of all 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:20.780 is the one that we've just read, the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Think about it. One of the worst 00:06:20.780 --> 00:06:26.360 insults that you can throw at someone if you think that they are guilty of betrayal is to call them 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:36.699 a Judas. It was terrible to betray a friend. It's terrible to betray a nation. How awful to betray 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:43.660 the Son of God, the Savior of the world. So this morning we're going to be examining this story of 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:49.060 betrayal. And what I want us to do is to really to map it onto the story of our world and to see it 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:54.680 as it takes place in our own lives as well. It's not just a story for then and a problem for 00:06:54.680 --> 00:07:02.180 Judas. It's something that we all need to see our place in. So we're going to see the betrayal, 00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:09.660 but we are also going to see the beauty beyond the betrayal. As we recognize Jesus is not here as a 00:07:09.660 --> 00:07:19.939 passive victim. He is not surprised by this nighttime conspiracy of evil. He knows God's plan of salvation. 00:07:19.939 --> 00:07:28.920 He knows where His story is heading. He knows that His hour of suffering and glory is now here. 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:37.659 And so against the dark backdrop of sin and evil and betrayal, the awesome beauty of our Savior's 00:07:37.659 --> 00:07:43.500 love shines for us. John had told us earlier that Jesus and Jesus Himself said, 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:48.939 I am the light of the world, I am the light of the world. And the light always overcomes the darkness. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:54.060 Every time we switch on our bedside lamp in the morning, we are reminded that light 00:07:54.060 --> 00:08:01.339 wins over darkness. And we see it here, and we see it in the gospel. And in Jesus' story 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:08.660 of faithful obedience, in the face of this terrible betrayal, there is promise for us. 00:08:08.660 --> 00:08:16.939 There is promise of a love that endures, of a hope that is certain, of recovery, 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:25.840 if we feel that we too are part of this betrayal. So three very simple things for us to think about 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:30.580 today. First, we're going to think about the garden, because it's important for us to notice 00:08:30.579 --> 00:08:39.720 where this happens. Maybe some of you have read or you have seen Wuthering Heights, written by Emily 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:47.759 Bronte. It is possibly the novel where it's recognized that the location really plays its 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:53.620 part in driving the story on. So it's set in the Yorkshire moors, and there's the wild landscape, 00:08:53.620 --> 00:09:01.440 and there's the wild weather that seem to mirror the turbulent emotional life of the main character, 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:07.600 some of the actions of the characters. There's revenge, there's obsession, and it's all seen 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:13.299 in the wild, rugged landscape. The setting is crucial to the storyline. 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:25.059 It's absolutely true here also that the garden is crucial to the storyline, to the storyline of God's 00:09:25.059 --> 00:09:35.620 story of redemption. Let's see, first of all, how this garden matters to Jesus. Verse 2, we're told 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:47.399 that Judas knew the place because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. In this garden, the Son of 00:09:47.399 --> 00:09:59.080 God came to spend time with his friends. It was a known place. In verse 4, Jesus came to this garden 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:09.139 knowing all that was going to happen to him. So Jesus comes to the garden, a place that was known to him, 00:10:09.300 --> 00:10:14.660 and where others knew, that's where he spent time with his disciples. And this is telling us in this 00:10:14.660 --> 00:10:20.740 moment, this crucial moment, Jesus will not run and hide. He knows where he is coming, but he will 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:28.680 deliberately choose to walk the road of obedience, suffering, and death in order to accomplish salvation 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:37.159 for his people. Jesus coming to the garden is a reminder of his commitment to you and to me if we 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:43.719 love him. But we also understand that in a very different way, the garden matters to Judas. 00:10:45.899 --> 00:10:51.459 Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place. So Judas came to the garden, guiding the detachment of soldiers 00:10:51.459 --> 00:10:58.059 and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. For Judas, this garden becomes the ideal 00:10:58.059 --> 00:11:03.739 location for betrayal. Takes place at nighttime, so it's quiet. The crowd have gone to their homes. 00:11:04.319 --> 00:11:11.319 It's outside of the city. Again, it's more secluded. And so Judas comes to the garden, leading this 00:11:11.319 --> 00:11:19.419 mixed mob to arrest Jesus. It's very unusual to see Romans and Jews working together, but there's that 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:25.919 principle, you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We absolutely see this here in people's 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:33.979 conspiring to get rid of Jesus. So the garden matters to Jesus and Judas, but we also need to understand 00:11:33.979 --> 00:11:41.199 that the garden matters to John as he writes his gospel. I'm just going to show us really briefly how 00:11:41.199 --> 00:11:48.159 this becomes a focus of his story. So we see it here. The betrayal is identified as happening in the 00:11:48.159 --> 00:12:01.360 garden. If you skim over to chapter 18, verse 26 and 27, here's Peter. One of the high priest's servants, 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:07.059 a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, didn't I see you with him in the 00:12:07.059 --> 00:12:14.139 garden? Again, Peter denied it. In that moment, a cock began to crow. So the garden connects with 00:12:14.139 --> 00:12:25.000 Peter in his denial. Chapter 19, verse 41, at the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:33.199 and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. So the story of Jesus' death and 00:12:33.199 --> 00:12:40.519 burial is connected deliberately by John to a garden. And so too, when it comes to the resurrection, 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:47.600 we are reminded of location. As Jesus, in his risen state on Easter Sunday, appears to Mary, 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:52.600 he asked her, woman, this is chapter 20, verse 15, woman, why are you crying? Who is it you're looking 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:59.939 for? Thinking he was the gardener. She said, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you have 00:12:59.939 --> 00:13:06.199 put him. So why does she think he's the gardener? Because it takes place, Jesus has risen in the garden. 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:14.240 So the garden location is really important to John in his gospel at the end. But I also want to remind 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:20.100 us that at the beginning of John's gospel, he speaks about Jesus, the Word who was with God, 00:13:20.180 --> 00:13:29.140 the Word who was God, the Word who is active in creation, bringing life to creation. So John, 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:36.539 in his gospel, wants us to take us, wants to take us back to the beginning, to creation, 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:43.879 and to another garden, to the first garden, to the garden of Eden, so that we understand that 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:52.439 one of the reasons Jesus has come into this world is to undo the curse, is to restore what was ruined 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:59.360 by Adam and his fall into sin. And there's significant parallels between what happens in Jesus' garden 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:07.380 and the garden of Eden. That first garden, the garden of Eden, was a paradise place, a place of beauty, 00:14:08.060 --> 00:14:13.240 a place of perfect relationship, a place of friendship with God. But then what happened? 00:14:14.040 --> 00:14:21.920 Evil came in. The serpent came in. And what happened in the garden is a betrayal took place. 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:32.020 Sin is a parting from God. Sin is betrayal. Adam was the first to be guilty of the betrayal of sin. 00:14:32.520 --> 00:14:40.800 And in that moment, all of history was impacted. All of us, by nature, we now turn our back on God. 00:14:42.040 --> 00:14:51.900 John Owen would say sin is our inbred traitor. There is this force within us that opposes God. 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:58.700 That opposes the purposes of God. That opposes the goodness and grace of God. So that without the 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:05.580 help of God and the work of Jesus, we would say no. So that was the garden of Eden. But what about this 00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:14.960 garden, Jesus' garden? It's no longer a paradise because of sin. And for Jesus, the Son of God, 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:21.180 as He comes here, it's much more like a wilderness place. It's like an exile. This is the beginning 00:15:21.180 --> 00:15:28.360 where Jesus is so conscious that He is the sin-bearer of the world, and He will be forsaken by His Father. 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:35.660 Here is a place where friendship with the Son of God is rejected. 00:15:35.659 --> 00:15:45.860 Into this garden, once again, evil comes. This time, men bearing swords and clubs. 00:15:47.719 --> 00:15:55.139 But unlike Adam, in the garden, Jesus will not sin. He surrenders to do His Father's will. 00:15:55.139 --> 00:16:03.179 And the significance of what happens in Jesus' garden, including the cross, including the empty tomb, 00:16:03.299 --> 00:16:11.220 including the resurrection, impacts history, impacts eternity. Because what Jesus accomplishes 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:18.360 for us in the garden is the defeat of death itself. By His work of the cross and the resurrection, 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:28.000 He breaks the power of sin. He wins victory over Satan. And He gives hope to you and to me of forgiveness 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:34.279 and a place in, to go back to Revelation, the eternal garden city. 00:16:36.779 --> 00:16:42.120 Now, before we leave the garden, I think it's really easy when we come to a story like this, 00:16:42.180 --> 00:16:48.279 and maybe especially to Judas' story, to say, ah, this betrayal, it is a problem out there. It was 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:54.519 a problem for that one. It was a problem for Judas. Actually, this is something that authors would say 00:16:54.519 --> 00:17:01.039 we've been doing ever since the Nazis came. It's really easy for us to say, ah, the problem of evil, 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:09.440 the problem of sin, are those people over there. You know, the excesses, the awful realities of people 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:13.940 like the Nazis. And so we can excuse ourselves, because we think the problem is entirely over there. 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:20.660 It's interesting that Solzhenitsyn, the Russian author, he recognized that. So about three decades 00:17:20.660 --> 00:17:27.180 later, he was trying to persuade the world that the evil was still happening within the Soviet Empire. 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:32.660 And the one thing that he said that's become famous is that the dividing line between good and evil 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:40.059 ultimately runs through every human heart. That this reality of betrayal is something we all 00:17:40.059 --> 00:17:47.779 need to wrestle with. I think it's helpful for us to see this mob coming against Jesus as a picture of 00:17:47.779 --> 00:17:55.460 humanity and human sin. Since the Garden of Eden, by instinct, we do not want God as King over us. 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:03.079 That we too would gladly arrest Jesus to get Him out of our lives. That we understand from the Bible 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.639 that God the Creator has sent Jesus to be the Savior, to offer friendship and love, 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:16.960 but by instinct we don't want to know. So this morning we're invited to look again at Jesus. 00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:27.720 To recognize that in love He was willing to die for your betrayals and mine. Willing to bear our guilt 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:37.060 and our shame. So that as we come to the story of the garden, it doesn't need to end for us with 00:18:37.059 --> 00:18:48.099 hopelessness, with our betrayal of God, but it can end with blessing from God if we trust the one who 00:18:48.099 --> 00:18:55.159 came into the garden to save us. That kind of takes us to our second point, to ask the question, who is 00:18:55.160 --> 00:19:02.720 Jesus, who is the greatest of the world? And to see His glory here in a surprising place. 00:19:05.140 --> 00:19:11.519 Years ago, probably the best part of 30 years ago, when they were at the height of their powers, I think, 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:19.060 the band Radiohead came to play in Glasgow. They put up a big tent on Glasgow Green, and they played this 00:19:19.059 --> 00:19:25.279 massive, amazing concert, thousands of people packed in. What was funny to me was the next time I saw, 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:31.779 the lead singer's called Tom York, and next time I saw Tom York, he's a very small man, I saw him walk 00:19:31.779 --> 00:19:38.859 down Buchanan Street carrying some shopping bags. Not really much sense of glory and wonder, most people 00:19:38.859 --> 00:19:46.279 passed him by. And you probably have your stories of meeting celebrities in unexpected places. 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:52.399 Another theme that we find in the story of the garden 00:19:52.399 --> 00:19:58.700 connects us to the theme that runs through John's gospel of the identity of Jesus, 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:06.139 and also this idea that God's glory is often seen in really unexpected places. 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:11.879 Think about some of the stories that we have in the Bible. Here is Moses, and he's a shepherd, 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:16.059 and he's in the wilderness, and all of a sudden he sees the glory of God in a burning bush that 00:20:16.059 --> 00:20:22.579 never burns up. Or we go to the book that we've been studying in the evenings, the book of Jonah, 00:20:23.019 --> 00:20:26.819 and here we see the glory of God showing mercy to a wicked city of Nineveh. 00:20:27.559 --> 00:20:32.740 Or we could go to the whole story of Jesus' ministry on earth, and we see a kingdom welcome 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:39.259 be extended to thieves and prostitutes and lepers, and we understand that there is something in God that 00:20:39.259 --> 00:20:48.000 loves to show His glory in surprising places. And here is another one. In the darkness of this night, 00:20:48.779 --> 00:20:57.940 in the darkness of this evil, soldiers, officials, we ourselves come face to face with the glory of God. 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:06.480 Again, just to recognize that Jesus is in full control of the situation, which perhaps seems 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:12.299 surprising. You know, here's this great kind of crowd, and they're fully armed, and they're ready 00:21:12.299 --> 00:21:20.160 for action. But Jesus is in control. Two times, Jesus goes out, verse 4 and verse 7, and He asks them, 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:31.759 who is it you want? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. And two times, Jesus responds, verse 5 and verse 8, 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:37.500 I am He. Now that sounds fairly simple, 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:40.400 straightforward, until we recognize how important 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:45.599 the title, I am, the name I am is in the Bible. 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.660 So again, to go to the story of Moses, Exodus 3, 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.480 Moses asked, when people ask, what's your name, what shall I tell them? 00:21:54.480 --> 00:22:04.599 And he said, I am who I am. And John loves to record the fact that Jesus describes Himself as the 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:15.440 great I am. Jesus says to us in so many different places, I am God in the flesh. I am God, the great 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:24.360 redeemer of my people. John records seven famous I am sayings. I am the bread of life. I can give 00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:30.519 food and satisfaction. I am the light of the world, a true revelation of God's glory in the way of 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:37.879 salvation. I am the good shepherd laying down His life to bring His sheep home to God. I am the 00:22:37.879 --> 00:22:45.219 resurrection and the life. And now here, when as it were, the world comes together to judge Jesus, 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:54.019 to get rid of Jesus, we see the Lord Jesus showing God's glory once more. I am He. And did you notice 00:22:54.019 --> 00:23:02.480 what happens in verse 6? When Jesus said, I am He, the soldiers, the chief priests, the Pharisees, 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:12.859 they drew back and fell to the ground. That's a posture of worship. That Jesus, as He is being 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:20.779 arrested, receives worship. Here is a response to the presence of the glory of God. 00:23:20.779 --> 00:23:30.259 Here is them recognizing we see something unique in Jesus. Here is the reality that God the Father 00:23:30.259 --> 00:23:36.500 is going to make absolutely sure that His Son receives honor as He goes to the cross. 00:23:38.220 --> 00:23:44.160 So He receives worship. Sadly, those people who bow in a posture of worship will then come to arrest Him 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:50.759 and want to get rid of Him. But He receives worship because He is the Son of God with all glory. 00:23:51.740 --> 00:24:01.240 And He also is seen as glorious in the way He cares for His followers. It's amazing, isn't it? Jesus 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:08.640 answered, I told you I am He. If you're looking for Me, then let these men go. This happened so that the 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:17.420 words He had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not lost one of those you gave Me. So Jesus is going to 00:24:17.420 --> 00:24:25.180 be a rock-solid Savior for His people. He said that my followers are in My hands, they're in My Father's 00:24:25.180 --> 00:24:31.440 hands, and I'll not lose one of those I came to save. And here is Jesus in this moment protecting 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:39.420 His followers. Another thing this means is that Jesus will go to the cross alone. 00:24:40.620 --> 00:24:50.460 He walks this path alone as He bears guilt and burden and our debt of sin. And so in the darkness 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:57.779 of our sin, in the darkness of this conspiracy of evil, the light of Jesus' glory shines. 00:24:57.779 --> 00:25:06.839 I don't know if any of you have been to any of the Scottish dark sky parks that have kind of been set 00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:10.899 up in the last few years. There's one down in the Galloway Forest. There's one up in Cairngorms, 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:18.000 a few places. They're particularly isolated, and that isolation allows for like inky darkness, 00:25:18.559 --> 00:25:26.240 no light pollution, but it also allows an incredible view of the skies whenever the clouds would roll back. 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:32.759 I had my own tiny dark sky park back when I was younger. One of the houses that we lived in, 00:25:32.859 --> 00:25:40.359 Sky, had a gap of probably about, not quite two meters between the house and the shed. And when I 00:25:40.359 --> 00:25:44.299 went home in winter, one of my favorite things to do was to stand there on a clear night and to look 00:25:44.299 --> 00:25:52.759 up, no light pollution at all, and to just see a sky full of brilliant stars. There is that reality 00:25:52.759 --> 00:26:02.759 that it's against a dark backdrop that glory shines. Do we see the beauty of Jesus shine? Do we see the 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:12.539 glory of Jesus shine against this darkness of betrayal as Jesus here comes to do His Father's 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:19.700 will? This maybe isn't a place that we would expect to see glory as people are saying no to Jesus, 00:26:19.700 --> 00:26:25.400 want to arrest and get rid of Him, but we see it as we recognize He is the great I Am who is worthy of 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:31.380 worship. And there's something I think wonderful in our own lives that often, and this is God's kindness 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:40.000 to us, we see His glory in unexpected places and at unexpected times. Some of us, I know it's been 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:47.680 dark times in our lives that have been the occasion that have led us to reach out, that have led us to 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:54.799 seek and to find Jesus and to find that actually Jesus has come and found us. And that seeing the 00:26:54.799 --> 00:27:01.820 glory of salvation, seeing the glory of forgiveness, well, that changes everything. It's transformed our 00:27:01.820 --> 00:27:08.320 worry into worship. Those deep problems that we were in give way to joyful praise. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:16.220 And maybe we've had this experience as well, that those dark situations, those dark valleys that we 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:26.079 go through are uniquely privileged times for us of recognizing God's protection and God's presence 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:33.299 and God's promises becoming more real to us than ever they were before. Someone was sharing a story 00:27:33.299 --> 00:27:43.039 this week of knowing God's blessing in their illness, the blessing of learning to depend on God as Father, 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:51.279 of being forced to slow down and be thankful for the small blessings of life. Dark situations can do that 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:59.359 when we see the glory of our God and even hear the darkness of human sin. Because the most terrible 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:05.319 betrayal is to betrayal is to betray the Son of God, the worst evil that ever happened was when people got 00:28:05.319 --> 00:28:13.740 together to kill Jesus. But against the darkness, the beauty of Jesus shines, and the glory of the good news 00:28:13.740 --> 00:28:23.419 shines as we understand that here is Jesus going willingly into arrest, into humiliation and suffering, and 00:28:23.420 --> 00:28:31.480 ultimately to death for us and for our salvation. And that really takes us to our last and brief point. 00:28:31.600 --> 00:28:37.140 Why is Jesus here? The third thing we need to think about, we've thought about the garden and the glory, we need 00:28:37.140 --> 00:28:45.500 to think about the cup. So remember, Jesus has full knowledge. Jesus has total authority. Jesus could have 00:28:45.500 --> 00:28:52.620 gone anywhere other than the garden. He would later say, I could have called down legions of angels to get rid of 00:28:52.619 --> 00:29:01.379 my enemies in a moment. But instead, verse 11, he commands Peter, put your sword away. He says no to 00:29:01.379 --> 00:29:09.000 fighting. And he says yes to drinking the cup. Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? 00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:14.659 So we understand at a human level, don't we, Peter's reaction. He wants to defend his friend. 00:29:15.639 --> 00:29:21.079 And we know, you know, how terrible a parting this is going to be. He hates the idea of Jesus' death. 00:29:22.619 --> 00:29:29.759 Especially when we understand that Peter still has a misguided view of what Messiah will be. 00:29:30.339 --> 00:29:36.079 He understands Messiah in terms of powerful, political, freedom-fighting King. He cannot see 00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:42.619 a place for suffering and death as yet he'll get it after the resurrection. And so he fights against, 00:29:42.619 --> 00:29:55.379 Jesus says no to fighting and yes to drinking the cup. This is Jesus, the great I am, the one who is with God, 00:29:55.479 --> 00:30:05.899 the one who is God, who has come to the garden on this set purpose. Humiliation, suffering, death, 00:30:05.900 --> 00:30:15.759 must come first before the glory that follows. And so he's going to drink the cup. Why the talk of the 00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:21.300 cup? That's why we read from the book of Isaiah, there's that Old Testament image of God giving to 00:30:21.300 --> 00:30:29.820 his enemies the cup of his wrath. The enemies of God invited, as it were, to drink down the judgment of 00:30:29.819 --> 00:30:39.379 God because of their sin, because of their evil. And Jesus comes to the garden to display his glory by 00:30:39.379 --> 00:30:47.139 taking the cup of judgment in our place. Because he doesn't drink that cup because of his sin, 00:30:47.299 --> 00:30:52.519 he drinks it because of the sins of his people as our loving, perfect substitute. 00:30:52.519 --> 00:31:03.379 That he will drink from the cup of God's wrath so that that cup can pass from us. And instead, 00:31:04.059 --> 00:31:06.519 we can joyfully drink from the cup of salvation. 00:31:09.379 --> 00:31:15.680 It's significant, I think, as John records at chapter 19, as Jesus dies, verse 28, 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:20.960 knowing that everything had now been finished and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:29.440 Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:36.140 sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he'd received the drink, 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:46.500 Jesus said, it is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus will thirst 00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:56.700 on the cross. And all he'll receive is wine vinegar so that you and I can freely drink from the water of 00:31:56.700 --> 00:32:04.200 life, so that you and I can be fully and truly satisfied in him because he dies to forgive us, 00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:14.279 to reconcile us, to bring us to our God. And so John records this story, I think, with a due sense of 00:32:14.279 --> 00:32:25.460 awe. Here is the awful reality of human betrayal, of human rejection, that we cannot afford to stand 00:32:25.460 --> 00:32:31.539 to one side of this and say, I was for those guys. We too would put King Jesus on trial. 00:32:32.500 --> 00:32:39.700 We too, by nature, would bind him so he is powerless. We too would refuse his rule over us. 00:32:39.700 --> 00:32:49.960 John records that awful reality, but he also records for us the awesome glory of Jesus our Savior, 00:32:50.960 --> 00:33:00.960 facing down betrayal, drinking down the cup of wrath, so that if we trust in him, if we turn to him in 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:07.000 faith, there is nothing left for us to drink. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:14.619 And John records this to speak to us of the awesome glory of God's story of redemption. 00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:23.559 Jesus is seen suffering, dying, and rising in a garden to remind us that he brings blessing where 00:33:23.559 --> 00:33:30.099 previously there was curse. He brings life where previously there was death. He restores relationship 00:33:30.099 --> 00:33:36.699 where the great separation had occurred. And so the cross of Christ ultimately is glorious, 00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:47.119 because beyond the ugliness of our betrayals stands the beauty of our Savior and his redeeming love. 00:33:47.799 --> 00:33:56.000 Let's pray together. Lord, our God, we thank you for Jesus coming to that garden, 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:04.940 for his revealing his glory, and for his willingness to drink from that cup. 00:34:06.099 --> 00:34:15.519 Because by faith we understand that that changes everything for us, that it means by faith forgiveness. 00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:25.619 It means the promise of life with you now and for all eternity. It means the curse has been reversed, 00:34:25.739 --> 00:34:33.380 and now we live enjoying blessing with the promise of eternal blessing and glory still to come. 00:34:34.860 --> 00:34:42.079 We thank you for the journey of Jesus to the cross. We pray that this journey would help us in our 00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:49.880 journeys of life and faith. And we pray even this morning that you would help those who are as yet 00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:57.519 not trusting in Jesus to consider what happened in this garden, its significance for life and for 00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:05.360 eternity, and that together we would be trusting and rejoicing in Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.