Shall we open our Bibles, please, to the eighteenth chapter of John's Gospel? We've been studying in John's Gospel for a long time, and we have now arrived at the first verse of the eighteenth chapter. And I would say that if when we started to read the seventeenth chapter, we could say the place where on those stand is holy ground. Then when we get to the eighteenth chapter, the place whereon we stand is holier ground. And when we get to the nineteenth chapter, it's holier still, as we follow the Son of God in his sufferings for us. Chapter eighteen, we'll read the first eleven verses. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook he drawn, where was a garden? into which he entered and his disciples. And Judas also which betrayed him knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus says unto them, I am he. Leave out the word he, because it's in italics, and read it this way, Jesus, he says unto them, I am. Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which was spoken of them, which he spake, of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father had given me. Shall I not drink it? Now I'd like to read one or two more scriptures. A way back in the Old Testament, please. Second Samuel. Second Samuel, and chapter fifteen. Verse twenty two. And all the country wept with a loud voice. And all the people passed over. And the king also himself passed over the brook he drawn. That's two Samuel chapter fifteen, verse twenty-three. Fifteen, chapter fifteen, verse twenty-three. And all the people passed over towards the way of the wilderness. And lo, Zadak, Zadak also, and all the Levites that were with him bearing the ark of the covenant of God, they sent down the ark of God. And Abbaitha went up until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadak, carry back the Ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it and his habitation. Now in Psalm twenty-seven, here I think we have words which probably the Lord fake perhaps within himself or to his father as he went over the brook he drawn into the garden of Gethsemane. Psalm twenty-seven and as that great multitude came to arrest him. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked Even mine enemies and my foes come upon me to eat up my flesh. They stumbled and fell. Psalm forty. Verse eleven. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold upon me, so I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and compounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me ha ha. May God bless to us this reading from his own precious words. Should we now just seek his face for a moment? Blessed God, our Father, again we bow before thee. We thank you for this wonderful book, the Bible. We thank thee, Lord, that from cover to cover there are no mistakes in it. And we thank thee, Lord, that In a wonderful way, thou hast linked up the types and shadows and some of the small incidents in the Old Testament which all tell us about the life and the work and the suffering and the shame and the glory of thy beloved Son. We pray, Lord, this morning that thou grant that as we look upon him, as he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, that teacheth something, Lord, more about him, that our hearts might adore him, and we might set our faces and our minds and our lives to serve him more faithfully. We seek thy blessing in the precious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now I think we should call our subject this morning over the Brook Kidron. I think I mentioned when I was speaking last week or probably the week before that some years ago, to be precise, in the year A whole band of us, maybe a hundred of us, took a trip from the upper room, the traditional place of the upper room, and went it our way down to the Brook Kedron. We had decided before that we would walk down in perfect silence, no one talking. And we went down a long zigzag path, quite a long way under the city wall, and finally passed over the Brook Kedron and went into the Garden of Gethsemane. Instead of going to the right, as most people do, into the traditional spot where they have the great big olive trees, where the Lord is supposed to have prayed, our friends took us more to the left and where it was a steeper part, much steeper, and we climbed up towards the Mount of Olives and beneath. the olive trees. We gathered there together and we sang some of those wonderful hymns that we often sing at the Lord's table about the suffering of the Lord Jesus. I remember reading Psalm one hundred and twenty, one hundred and two through on that occasion, which I think is a picture of the Lord's suffering in the garden. We stayed there an hour or so. I'll never, never forget it was Thursday night, the night before Good Friday. And Leela said to me, because she was there too, we were both serving in the British services at the time, Leela said to me, heart, can you hear? And we could hear some Greek hymns. hymns that we sang in Greece. We had just a few weeks, a little while before, a couple of years before then, we had escaped from Greece where we'd spent ten years. But we could hear some evangelical Greek Christians singing some of those lovely hymns about the sufferings of the Lord, just like we sing at the Lord's table, another group somewhere in the garden. Then I heard some rustling and I looked over. We were on a kind of a high place and I looked over and down there was a pathway. And coming up the pathway... there was a band of priests, Greek Orthodox priests, in their black robes and their staves, you know, and their high black hats and the Atlantis in their hand. I never saw anything so real, which reminded me of these verses I've read. They went in their way up this path, perhaps a dozen or more of them, chanting and singing, swinging their lanterns, carrying their paths, and going up through the Garden of Assumption on that night. There are many Christians from all over the place, but how real it seemed. And then as we looked up, and away on the other side was the great wall of the city of Toulouse. And that bright moonlight night we saw the moon shining on the wall, and we went through again in memory and in thought the sufferings of the Lord in the garden. Next day we went, we climbed to the top of Gordon's Calvary. That's not permitted to most people. on the top of Gordon's Calvary, there is a Muslim cemetery. And I look upon this as God's wonderful scheme for preserving that site, because wherever there is any so-called holy place, the great churches, the denominations of this world, take the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Eastern Coptic Church, they have all built great edifices. If you go to the Jacob's Well, Well, you have to go into an old church, and then you have to go down, down into the crypt, and down at the bottom of the crypt, you'll find the well. If you go to the place called Gabbatha, where the Lord stood before Pilate's soldiers, you have to go into a church called the Church of Ekehomo. Behold the man, Ekehomo. And you have to wend your way down, and down under, some twenty feet down, I suppose, there's a great big pavement. That's Gabbatha. And we stood on that pavement where they scourged the Lord. And you see the very marks of the, where the Roman soldiers played their dice games on the floor. But all these places have been covered up by edifices and churches and religion. But Gordon's Calvary, nobody could build there because it's a Muslim cemetery. And no Christians are allowed in a Muslim cemetery. And I think God has so arranged that and preserved that sight, because verily I believe, I may be wrong, but I very believe, let's jump, I verily believe that that was really where the Lord suffered. He went over the brook Kidron. Long years before, we read of it this morning. David, the king of Israel, passed over the brook-keeper. Many passed with him. Seemed as if all the city had gone out with him. And he talked about the parents and the little children, and they brought them all over the brook to go into exile with a king who was fleeing away from the rebellion of his son Absalom. Remember I read about the ark. We'll come to that in a moment. And when they got so far with the ark, David said, take the ark back to Jerusalem. What a wonderful picture David was of the Lord passing over the brook. And over all those years, what I marvel at in the Scripture, what I love in the Scripture, is to see how over years and years God links up some little incident in the past to something in the life of the Lord Jesus. Just tremendous. You find it over and over again. And here's the story. of David going into exile, passing over the brook, and now the true David, the true son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, is passing over the brook. It says he went forth. You know this word forth, he went forth. It occurs several times. It occurs in verse one. It occurs in verse four. And then when you get over into verse nineteen, it says, in chapter nineteen, it says, verse seventeen, and he bearing his cross went forth into a place where the place was called. There they crucified. Nothing happened to the Lord Jesus by chance. He knew all that was going to take place, and he said his face was a flint we read to go to Jerusalem, knowing all that would take place, and he was the one that moved from step to step. He led the way, as it were, as he yielded himself up and gave himself over to them. It's interesting to note, How the disciples are mentioned here. He went forth with his disciples. Over the brook he drawn where was a garden into the which he entered and his disciples. Verse two, Judas also which betrayed him knew the place for Jesus oft times restored his dither with his disciples. You notice as he went, he went with his disciples. They were with him. in this. Now John doesn't tell us anything about the agony in the garden. John doesn't tell us anything about the Lord praying three times and asking if possible his cup should be taken from him. John doesn't tell us about those three disciples, although he himself was one of them, that's the marvel of it, although he was one of the three, he doesn't tell us how he went forward with the Lord in one of those recesses I've been talking about in the garden. There were many kind of outclothes and recesses death. He doesn't tell us about that. Mark does, and Matthew does, and Luke does, but he doesn't. John is bringing before us all the way through his gospel the person of the eternal Son of God. Luke brings us the picture of the servant of God. Mark brings us the picture of the servant of God. Luke brings us the picture of the perfect man, but John gives us the picture of the Son in all his dignity. And he doesn't tell us about the agony in the garden. He tells us of the Son in triumph as the eternal Son as he yielded himself up to this band that came. Judas was there. It says Judas also which betrayed him knew the place And Judas then, having received abandoned men and officers from the priests, it says he stood with them. Verse five, Judas also which betrayed him, stood with them. The disciples went with the Lord. Judas stood with, not with the Lord, but with his enemies. The place we've talked about, the place a wonderful spot and one of the unspoiled places in Israel today which reminds us so vividly of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Verse three, Judas then having received a band of men and officers, a band of men, I have read several explanations of this term, a band of men. How many men were there? Remember, they were going to arrest the Son of God, one person. How many people came out through this? Here it says a band of men. Now, most of the commentators tell you that the Greek word there means a group of about five or six hundred. These were Roman soldiers. But down where in verse twelve, then the band and the captain of the officers, the Greek word for captain is Heliarchus. Heliarchus. Now Helia in Greek is a thousand. And Arcus is a leader or a captain. In Hebrews four where he speaks of the Lord Jesus as the leader, the captain of our salvation, the word is archidot, a leader. And here, Heliarchus is a leader of a thousand men. That's the meaning of the word. If words mean anything at all, that's what it means, Heliarchus. A centurion is called Ecotondarchus, because Ecoton is a hundred. But here, Heliarchus, here is a thousand. And I suggest from the meaning of the word, the caption was on Heliarchus. He was, anyhow, a man who had charge of a thousand men. He may not have brought them all out with him, I don't know. But let me read a few verses to you. Let's read Matthew twenty-seven. Matthew twenty-seven, verse forty-seven. I expect it's Matthew twenty-six I'm looking for. Matthew twenty-six, verse forty-seven. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a grave multitude, a grave multitude, with swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Look at Mark chapter fourteen. This wonderful chapter that begins with that feast at Bethany, the supper where Mary anointed him. See how it ends. Chapter fourteen and verse forty-three. And immediately while he spake cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude, a great multitude, with swords and staves from the chief priests and scribes and elders. And then in Luke, you get the same word, in Luke, twenty-two. And verse forty-seven again, Luke twenty-two, forty-seven. And while he yet spake, behold, a multitude. And he that was called Judas, one of the twelve went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss. a multitude. How many? I don't know. Some suggest five or six hundred. I'm suggesting that the man who brought them is a man who had charge of a thousand men. And they came with swords and staves and lanterns to arrest one person, the Son of God. Jesus then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and scribes, cometh dither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him went forth. And he said unto them, Whom seek ye? This is very, very significant. Up till now, it says he was with his disciples, but now he leaves them, and it says Jesus went forth. First of all, in verse one, he went forth with his disciples. Now he leaves them, and he goes forth alone. Way back in Leviticus, look at Leviticus sixteen. Leviticus sixteen is the great day of atonement. It is the only chapter in the Bible that deals with the Day of Atonement in detail.Jerviticus sixteen, and I'll read you verse sixteen. Verse fifteen, he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, and he shall make an atonement. Verse seventeen. and there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make an atonement in the holy place until he come out and have made an atonement. There shall be no man when he went in, no man with him till he came out. And it seems to me that when the Lord Jesus stepped forward and leave his disciples, from then on he was all alone. He was going to make the great atonement and all the All the types and shadows of Leviticus sixteen were to be fulfilled in this next day, next night, and next day. And the Lord went forth alone. And there had to be no one with him when he went into the holy place. And what a holy place it was. And so the Lord Jesus stepped forward. He went forth. As the Son of God, with all the power of the Son of God, he stepped forward and said unto them, Whom seek ye? And they didn't know him, mind you. They didn't know him. They'd have arrested him immediately, they did, but they didn't know him. They said, he said, who seek ye? They answered, Jesus of Nazareth. What you could connect with that, eh? They said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? They didn't say we come to arrest the Son of God. They didn't believe that. They didn't think they'd come to arrest the King of Kings. but they despised Nazarene. That's what they came to arrest. No, a prophet, a prophet from Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto them, I am. Well, what memories it brings up? Remember he said in the eighth chapter, before Abraham was I am. Before Abraham was I am. And he said in chapter eight, verse twenty four, if he believed not that I am, he shall die in your sin. If he believed not that I am, what does he mean by I am? That was the covenant title by which God revealed himself to Moses. When I was serving in the British Royal Air Force in Egypt, I was living for a while next door to a chaplain, Air Force chaplain, a squadron leader, that's a major, who was the... the rabbi. We had a thousand Palestinians in our large maintenance depot where I was down there, near the sewage canal for some years. And I used to go into this man's room. He's had the next room to me. And he was a nice fellow. He was a Jew, a Padre. And I used to go in and talk to him about the scriptures. And when we were studying with a group of men, I went through John's Gospel in that camp. In two years we went through John's Gospel, verse by verse, like we're doing now. And it came to the night when I had to talk about the term in the eighth chapter, before Abraham was I am. And I knocked his door and went in. I said, now, Padre, help me. Because you have a Hebrew scroll and read to me in Hebrew, interpret to me. I like the manner. I said, help me. I said, I have to speak tonight about Moses. When he went, the Lord was going to send him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. And he said, when I should go and they shall ask me, what is the name? What is God's name? What shall I say unto them? And I said, God began to say, I am that. And I hadn't said, I am that I am. I haven't said hardly a word. He said, stop, stop, stop, don't. He said, what do you mean? You dare not, you dare not say those words. That's what he means. He said, don't you know thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain? He said, we Jews never quote that. When we come to that verse, we bow our heads in adoration, but we don't quote those words, I am that I am. That's the name of God, he said. That's the name of Jehovah. I tell you, I had a message for my men that night when I told them. That's the name of Jehovah. This is what the Lord Jesus said. He said, whom seek ye? Jesus said unto them, I am. He used the covenant title of Jehovah. What was the result? Look at him. As soon then as he'd said unto them, I am, they went back and fell to the ground. Now I can understand Jews doing this, but I can hardly understand Gentiles. But there was something about the Son of God in that tremendous hour when he said, I am. It caused them all to fall to the ground. When David was going to go over the brook, Kedron I read this morning how they brought with them the Ark of the Covenant. And David said, now there's no need to bring the Ark over the brook. Send it back to Jerusalem. Now, you know, the Lord Jesus was the true ark. In the ark there were the tables, the Ten Commandments. And if it could ever be said of one person more than anybody else, Thy word have I hidden my heart, it could be said about the Son of God. Thy word have I hidden my heart, the Ten Commandments were there. He was the ark. In that ark was the pot of manna, the food with which God fed his people in the wilderness. But the Lord Jesus said, I am the bread of life. So he was the pot of manna. I am the bread of life. And in that ark was Aaron's rod that buddied a symbol of resurrection. And long before his resurrection, as he was on the road to the grave of Lazarus, he said, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the So he was the ark. All that was contained in the ark was contained in him. No wonder David said, send the ark back. We don't need an ark. The Son of God was the ark. And on that ark there was a mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled once a year on the day of its own. And the eyes of the cherubim looked down onto that blood. And God said, when I see the blood I'll pass over you. And God dwelt in all their journeys in the wilderness. God dwelt between the two cherries and over the mercy. God, Jehovah God dwelt. A pillar of cloud by day and fire by night to say that God was there. And when the Son of God was here on earth, he was there. And God dwelt in him. And God looked down from heaven and said, several times this is my beloved son in whom I well see he was there but listen when Abraham went when David sent down to bring the ark of God up to bring it up it had been in the hands of the Philistines and he sent down with a cart a new oxen and so on you remember the story to bring up the ark. Let's look at it. Two Samuel chapter six, verse six. Two Samuel chapter six, verse six. Verse three, they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it up out of the house of Abinidad. And David and all his house, verse five, played before the Lord on all manner of instruments. Verse six. And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, other put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. and the anger of the Lord was kindled against us, and God smote him there for his error. He made a mistake. He touched the ark of God, and God smote him dead. When the Lord Jesus, the true ark, went over the brook, he'd run, and after he spent that season in prayer, and that multitude came, and he went forth to meet them, and he said, Whom seeketh They said, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said, I am. It seems to me they put forth their hands to touch him. Like long ago, others put forth his hands to touch the ark of God. And God struck him dead. And when they came to put forth their hands to touch the Son of God, what happened? He said, I am. and they went backward and fell to the ground. They might have been all dead in there. And in the other scripture it says, not in this, but in one of the Gospels, the one of the Synoptic Gospels, it says at that juncture, he says, Think ye not that I could at this moment call upon my Father, and he could send twelve legions of angels. Do you know how many angels that is? There's six thousand men in a legion in the Roman army. I could send seventy-two thousand angels now. and be delivered. They brought multitudes, maybe a thousand, fifteen hundred men. I don't know. But the Lord said, I could have seventy-two thousand angels to say this. And don't you dare touch this precious ark of God. God struck them like dead men on the ground. Ah, but listen to what it says. The scripture had to be fulfilled. when they rose up the Lord went forth to them again and asked them again whom seek ye and they said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered I have told you that I am if therefore ye seek me let these go their way that the same might be fulfilled which he spake of them which thou hast gave me I have lost none that's what he said in his prayer in the seventeenth chapter Of those whom thou hast given me, I have lost none, but the Son of Prediction, and he was standing right there, and he was on the wrong side of the fence. He was in the enemy camp standing with them, and he turned. You know, God overruled here, because normally they would have arrested all the disciples and put them to death with him, but God overruled in a wonderful way. And the Lord is the eternal Son of God. I think he gave a command here, don't you? I don't think he was asking a favor of those fellows. I think he was making a command. And they had to do what he told them to do. He was God. He was the Son of God. He said, All right, you want me. I'll give in. I'll come. But let these go their way. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way. And he gave the command that the disciples should be saved and rescued, and they went away home. and left the Lord Jesus alone, as I said, that when he went in to make an atonement, there was no man in the holy place with him. And of course, Simon Peter, he, like he always does, he made himself rather foolish. He drew the sword and cut off. I suppose you're going to cut the man's head off, you know, but he's a poor swordsman and he just cut his ear off. And the Lord, our wonderful, the last miracle, before the resurrection, before the crucifixion. The Lord healed the servant here. And I understand it's the servant of the high priest. He was his right-hand man down there to take charge of the operation there with the Roman officer and the Lord healed his here. It seems to me at that very moment that man, Malchus, he should have said, boy, this is the son of God. He should have believed that very moment. For the rest of his life, I don't know whether his ear was cut off. It was put back on. Well, how it was healed, I don't know. But I know for the rest of his life, every time he touched his ear, he must have remembered that his ear was cut off. And this man whom they crucified, they put his ear back on. I think he would have believed in the Son of God more than anybody else, didn't he? And he was the one who came out to take charge of the operation, to arrest the Son of God. His name was Malchus. And Jesus said to Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath. the cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink it? And so Peter put his sword back, and the Lord yielded himself to this rabble mob with weapons. I don't know what kind of weapons they had, swords, I suppose, and spears, with weapons and lanterns. They thought he was going to run away and hide, and they'd want their lanterns to find him, although it was a bright moon night and night. And they came with slaves, defeated. For the Lord Jesus quietly yielded himself to them. And he said, The cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink it? Look at verse twelve, and here we'll stop for a sake of time. But look at verse twelve. Then the band and the captain, and this is where this word, word, heliarchus, the captain of a thousand, he means. Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him. What a picture, beloved. We've read this, studied this wonderful gospel from the early, early beginning. Remember when John the Baptist presented the Son of God. John the Baptist, as we said, when we were way back in those early chapters, his intention was when the time came to present a king who was going to clean up the threshing floor and destroy all his enemies. And somehow, when the time came, the great day of presentation, John one, verse twenty-nine, he didn't present a king at all. He said, Behold the Lamb. Behold, the Lamb is God. That was three and a half years before this. And now John's words are being fulfilled. And Isaiah's words are being fulfilled. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before a shears his dumb, so he opened up his mouth. and all that wonderful life of the Lord had led up to this great day. The hour had surely come, and the Son of God passed over the brooketron and went alone out of the garden to yield himself up, that he might take away your sin and mine. In those Psalms I read, He talked about my sin, it wasn't his sin. It's put that way, it wasn't his sin. It was your sin and mine that he bore in that Psalm twenty-seven. And Psalm forty rather than I read it was your sin and mine that he bore, a face called Calvary. And he talked about this rabble mob that came to arrest him. He said, deliver me from these men. That wasn't God's plan. God's plan was that he should go to a place called Calvary. Thank God he went there for you and me. I believe we're all saved people here this morning. I believe every one of us here this morning have had that wonderful experience in our life when we accepted Christ as our Savior. But who knows? It's easy to say I'm saved and not be saved. May God search our hearts as we bring this meeting to a close, and then we realize, may we realize, that as the Son of God went into that garden and then came out of that garden to go on to Calvary, he did it for you and for me. And in that dread hour which we shall reach one of these days as we talk about this wonderful gospel, on that lonely cross, alone, alone he bore the cross. took your place and mine and paid the great price of our sin that we might have eternal life. So we pray. Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for thy wonderful Son. We thank thee in every moment, in every incident. He was supreme. In every incident, he was in charge of the situation. He was the eternal Son. As we see him in John's Gospel, And we thank the Lord that even when in a dark, dark hour, he thought of the disciples and said, let these go and gave the command that they should go. And then he went on alone. that there are sins in his own body on the tree. We bow before thee in worship and praise and adoration, and thank thee for these few rounding studies in thy precious words about thy beloved Son. We seek thy parting blessing in his own precious name. Amen.