John 18:15-27 - Homiletics

The three denials of Peter.

After all the disciples had fled, some, like John and Peter, returned to the scene of our Lord's last trials. This fact must be remembered to Peter's credit.

I. THE HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF PETER 'S FALL .

1. The first circumstance was his introduction into the court of the high priest by John . This brought him into dangerous association with Christ's enemies.

2. The second was his recognition by those who had seen him in the garden at the time of our Lord ' s arrest .

3. The third was his Galilaean accent .

4. The fourth was the injury he had done with the sword to Malchus . There was thus a combination of fear and presumption in his presence among Christ's enemies.

II. PETER 'S FALL The denial of Christ was:

1. A serious crime , regarded by itself and its repetition, and in the light of the warning that preceded it, and the oaths and the curses that followed it. It was a crime full of ingratitude, cowardice, and lies.

2. Mark the peculiarity of this crime .

(a) He was an apostle, a chosen "fisher of men."

(b) He was admitted to the closest intimacy with our blessed Lord, and honored with his deepest confidence and affection. He might well say, "To whom shall we go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

(a) He had passed the previous night in watching. He was nervous and excited from the want of sleep, as well as from the prospect of losing the best of Masters.

(b) He was deserted by the other apostles, who were scattered everywhere. Peter's courage was of that character that rises when the danger is to be encountered with surrounding circumstances of sympathy.

(c) The personal help of Jesus was, besides, now suddenly withdrawn.

(d) His attack upon Malchus weakened his courage. When a man does a wrong thing or takes up a wrong position, he is from that moment a weaker man.

(e) He did not yet comprehend the necessity of Christ's death. "Far be it from thee." He was not, therefore, himself in a position to die.

(a) confident and zealous, but

(b) wanting in firmness and resolution. His character was a curious mixture of courage and fear.

III. PETER ROUSED FROM THE SLUMBER OF HIS CONSCIENCE . The crowing of the cock, and our Lord's look, awakened him to his true state. The look had a penetrative force in his soul.

1. It was a look of lasting remembrance . "Did I not tell thee that thou wouldst deny me?"

2. It was a look of inward sorrow . "Is this thy sympathy f or thy Friend?"

3. It was a look of blessed consolation. "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."

4. It was a look that, perhaps, gave a timely hint to the apostle to depart at once from the scene of danger.

IV. THE EFFECTS OF PETER 'S FALL .

1. He went out, and wept bitterly.

2. His fall made him humble and sympathizing and consolatory in his relations with the Church. His Epistles contain traces of the effects of his fall and his restoration.

Verse 28—Jn 19:16

The trial before Pilate.

This was the civil investigation following the ecclesiastical. The Sanhedrin wanted Pilate simply to ratify the sentence of death they had pronounced upon Christ.

I. THE EARLY RESORT TO PILATE . "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled; that they might eat the Passover?

1. The Sanhedrin were eager for the destruction of Jesus, and therefore sought Pilate at an unusually early hour of the morning. Their eagerness led them to disregard the law that did not allow sentence and execution to occur on the same day.

2. They were obliged to seek Pilate's intervention; for the Romans had deprived the Jews of the right of inflicting capital punishment. They might sentence Jesus to death; it was for Pilate to execute the sentence.

3. Mark their hypocrisy. They feared the defilement of approaching a Gentile tribunal, but they did not shrink from the greater defilement of shedding innocent blood.

II. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE CIVIL PROCEDURE . The Jews want their sentence on Jesus confirmed without examination. "If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee." They had judged Jesus; it was for Pilate to act the part of the executioner.

1. Pilate's attempt to evade this demand. "Take ye him, and judge him according to your Law." The Jews still had the right of excommunication and scourging, but not of inflicting capital punishment. Pilate imagined that they would be content with the exercise of such inferior punishment as remained to them.

2. The Jews parried the thrust by declaring, in effect, that nothing but the capital sentence would satisfy them. "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." This language implied their dependence on Pilate for carrying out the sentence.

3. This fact led to the fulfillment of our Lord's own prophecy. "That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die?

III. THE SECOND PHASE OF THE CIVIL PROCEDURE . The Jews frame a political accusation. "Art thou the King of the Jews?" He had made himself a King!

1. The question of Pilate implies a charge on the part of the accusers as having given rise to it. The Jews said, "We found him perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar, saying that he is Christ the King" ( Luke 23:2 ).

2. It was a question which admitted of two very different answers.

3. Our Lord's method of answering Pilate's inquiry. "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?" Everything depended in the answer upon the fact whether it issued from Jewish or from Gentile lips. Jesus acted wisely; he neither affirms nor denies anything.

4. Pilate's hasty and contemptuous rejoinder. "Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?" What crime have you committed?

5. Our Lord's answer is at once an admission and a denial of kingship, according as the standpoint of interpretation is Gentile or Jewish. "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence."

(a) The revelation of God is the true scepter in Christ's hands; as unlike as possible to the methods of Roman rule. Truth is the realm of Christ.

(b) The subjects of this realm are all who hear the truth. "Every one that is of truth heareth my voice." "The spiritual man judgeth all things."

6. Pilate's contemptuous dismissal of the whole subject. "What is truth?"

(a) Pilate presumed upon a popular reaction in Christ's favor.

(b) But the chief priests were masters of the situation. Barabbas, a robber, was chosen, and Christ left for crucifixion.

(a) He hoped in this way to avert the extreme punishment by conciliating the less violent of Christ's enemies, and awakening the compassion of the populace. But he utterly miscalculated the fierceness of Jewish fanaticism.

(b) The parody of Jewish royalty—the crown of thorns, the purple robe, the "Hail, King of the Jews!"—was the scornful act of the Roman soldiers, who wished to pour contempt upon the Messianic hopes of a people they despised.

(a) There is a tone of pity and respect in Pilate's words, which meets no response among the Jews.

(b) The chief priests and officers demand his crucifixion. "They cried out, saying, Crucify him! crucify him!" The name of the cross is now mentioned for the first time, and by Jewish lips. Concessions had only made them bolder. Pilate could not now resist their extreme demands.

IV. THE THIRD PHASE OF THE CIVIL PROCEDURE — THE RELIGIOUS ACCUSATION . "The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

1. The Jews point to the article of their code which punishes blasphemy with death, and demand Pilate's execration of their sentence.

2. The charge was true. Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God.

3. The charge had a startling effect upon the half-skeptical, half-superstitious nature of Pilate. "When Pilate therefore heard that saving, he was the more afraid." He asked Jesus, "Whence art thou?"

4. Jesus gives no answer to the question.

5. Pilate's offence at the silence of Jesus. "Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?"

(a) The answer displays at once piety and meekness.

(b) It implies a Divine government of society. Under God "kings reign and princes decree justice." It therefore implies that Pilate was responsible for the use of his power.

(c) It implied that it was in accordance with a Divine dispensation that he was now subjected to the disposal of human authority.

(a) The Sanhedrin subjected their King to the authority of the foreigner, and thus "committed an act of theocratic felony."

(b) The greater the light, the more aggravated is the guilt of offenders. The Jews were more guilty than the Gentiles in the whole transaction of our Lord's crucifixion.

V. THE FOURTH PHASE OF THE CIVIL PROCEDURE . The intimidation of Pilate. "Pilate saith to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar."

1. The Jews appealed to Pilate's fears; for he was vulnerable upon many points, and Tiberius the emperor was the most suspicious of despots. "If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar's friend."

2. Pilate, in turn, avenges himself upon the Jews by compelling them to forswear all their Messianic hopes. They pronounced with their own lips the abolition of the theocracy. "Such a victory was a suicide." It marked the extreme desperation of the Jews, and their utter unscrupulousness in the pursuit of their bloodthirsty ends.

3. The success of their last maneuver. "Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified." The death of Jesus was compassed by a double treason: