Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE SAVIOR’S BETRAYAL IS STAGED”
John 18.1-3
My text for this message is John 18.1-3:
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.
2 And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.
3 Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
One of the greatest paradoxes in all theology is the puzzle of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.[1] Some deny or minimize one or the other, but that does not resolve the problem. We must accept divine sovereignty and human responsibility because both are taught in the Bible.
Concentrate your attention on human responsibility, not that of angels (who have it) or animals (who do not have it). Your responsibility involves the morality of your will. It is your capacity to think or say, “I will,” or “I will not,” obey God.
God created Adam and Eve with this capacity, and though sin affected their wills, it did not abolish their wills. All humans ever since, except the Lord Jesus, have had sinful wills. Before we briefly address the problem of sinful wills, we must first discuss human wills as they relate to God’s sovereignty.
Responsibility means accountability. In Romans 14.12, we read,
“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
Each of us are stewards of time, opportunity, and gifts, and we must someday give an account to the Master.[2]
Responsibility also means duty. For example, it is your duty to fear God. Ecclesiastes 12.13 reads,
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
It is also you duty to obey God, Luke 17.10:
“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
Accompanying responsibility is liability. You and I are liable for reward or punishment. We have obligations and are obliged to obey God. If we do not obey God, He is obliged to punish us. If we are guilty, we have culpability. We have answerability. We must give an answer to God on Judgment Day.
Human responsibility implies morality and ethics. God has given us consciences that indicate a certain measure of right and wrong. We have the ethical capacity for virtue and vice. It is the constitutional ability to make moral decisions. This is part of the image of God that is not given to animals or rocks. Morality implies ethical oughtness. We ought to obey God.
God has given us the standard of moral responsibility, His law, which is a part of His revealed will. Not all people have it equally. Some have more light than others. Some only have conscience, Romans 2.15. Others have only part of the Bible, while still others have the whole Bible and even good Bible preaching. The result is that some of us have more responsibility to God than others. The Lord Jesus said, in Luke 12.48,
“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
So, you see, more light, more responsibility. More light rejected more guilt and punishment. Responsibility implies a choice between two options.[3] But, this is crucial; human responsibility does not require equal ability to choose either option. Your will is not morally neutral.
In his The Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards argued that no man is neutral toward Christ, Who said,
“He that is not with me is against Me,”
Matthew 12.30. Nor can anyone choose both at the same time, Matthew 6.24. Edwards also showed that it is a mistake to suppose that your will is self-determining, which means free from influence. God alone is self-determining. Your will and mine always work in conjunction with our nature, as God does. A good nature produces a good will; a bad nature produces a bad will, Matthew 7.17.
Only God has a perfectly free will, but His will is never morally neutral, otherwise God could choose sin. He cannot deny Himself, Second Timothy 2.13. His will is always in perfect harmony with His holy nature. Those already in Heaven have free but not neutral wills, and the damned who have died have bound but not neutral wills in Hell.
We reject as unscriptural the popular notion that the human will must be totally free of divine interference to be responsible. In fact, a person’s cry for an independent and autonomous will is a symptom of a sinful will. Just as the invisible hand of God’s providence regularly guides nature and occasionally intervenes with miracles, God is legally entitled and able to intervene in the wills of every morally responsible person.
A righteous person wants to be free from sin and desires to be controlled by God, as we see in Romans 6.16-22 and Romans 7.24-25. An individual’s will is not off-limits to God. God can go anywhere He pleases. The popular but incorrect notion that God created a will that even He cannot interfere with resembles the philosophical idea of God creating a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it. No such will or rock has or can exist, for God is omnipotent and sovereign. Does He not have the right to intervene in the hearts of those that He has created?
Proverbs 21.1 reads,
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”
A river always follows the course of least resistance according to gravity, climate, and other factors. Likewise, a person’s will always follows a course that God sovereignly lays out for it. God invisibly yet irresistibly directs your heart and mine in such a way that He is sovereign, and we are responsible. Augustine wrote: “God works in the hearts of human beings to incline their wills, whether to good actions in accord with His mercy or to evil ones in accord with their merits.” He further added, “He has in his control the wills of human beings more than they have in their own wills.”
Many verses teach this, such as Ezra 6.22:
“The LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them.”
And Ezra 7.27:
“Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart.”
Note that the king of Assyria was not a righteous man.
In Second Corinthians 8.16, the Apostle Paul wrote,
“But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.”
This sovereign act of God is cause for thanksgiving, not denial or complaining.
In Philippians 2.12-13, Paul is even more explicit:
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
You and I will because God wills that we should so will. He works in us to cause us to do good works. This is according to His sovereign good pleasure and will. God did this with the writers of the Bible. Second Peter 1.21 describes the process of inspiration:
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The Spirit irresistibly overwhelmed those men so that what they spoke and wrote was God’s words and, therefore, infallible.[4] Many people who claim God adopts a posture of non-intervention with human wills fail to see such a view opens the door to a fallible Bible, for if God cannot interfere with sinful hearts, then they will always sin and create error. But Scripture is inerrant; therefore God does indeed interfere with human wills.
In Genesis 50.20, Joseph said that his brothers meant evil toward him, but God meant it for good. That is a classic case of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. This does not exonerate Joseph’s brothers from sin or make God guilty. Luke 22.22 is another such case. Judas betrayed Christ, but God foreordained this. Judas Iscariot certainly was still guilty. Acts 2.23 and Acts 4.21-28 say the same regarding others involved in Christ’s murder.
Revelation 17.17 is especially explicit:
“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”
Psalm 105.25 is yet another example:
“He turned their heart to hate his people.”
By the very fact that sinful individuals acted against God’s will, God’s will was done through them. The text before us today wonderfully illustrates this paradox. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both true, but we cannot fully grasp how. They are two sides of the same coin. Ultimately, they are complementary, not contradictory.
Consider the well-known words of C. H. Spurgeon:
“I have often been asked by persons to reconcile the two truths. My only reply is - they need no reconciliation, for they never fell out. Why should I try to reconcile two friends? Prove to me the truths do not agree.[... ] The two facts are parallel lines; I cannot make them unite, but you cannot make them cross either. Man is responsible because God is sovereign, not the other way around.”
Both truths must be believed and kept in balance. Preachers must preach as part of the whole counsel of God, Acts 20.27. When we cannot understand the paradox, such as is the case in John 18.1-3, let us bow and worship God who does. There are truths that we have great difficulty understanding and reconciling.
Let us take each verse in turn:
First, THE ARRIVAL OF THE ONE BETRAYED
John 18.1:
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”
As John’s Gospel records events in John chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 that are not recorded in the other three Gospel accounts, so there are details recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels between the Upper Room and while in the Garden of Gethsemane that are not recorded in John’s Gospel.
Our focus will be on John’s account, which records the Lord Jesus Christ’s compliance with His Father’s will: To help you appreciate the layout of Jerusalem between the Upper Room and the Garden of Gethsemane, let me remind you that our auditorium is oriented North, South, East, and West. I am facing South. To my left, which is your right, would be the Mount of Olives, with the Garden of Gethsemane on the shoulder a bit above the valley through which the brook Cedron flowed.
The platform I am standing on would be where Herod’s Temple was located atop Mount Zion, with the Lord Jesus Christ and His eleven men likely having walked past the main entrance as the events recorded in John chapter 15 unfolded. To my right, which is to your left as you face me, is the approximate location of the Upper Room where the Lord Jesus Christ celebrated the Passover and instituted the communion of the Lord’s Supper. From there Judas had departed to arrange the Savior’s betrayal, thereby sinning against God while advancing God’s grand plan of redemption.
After the Passover meal, after the Lord’s Supper, after Judas’ departure, and after the Lord’s discourses along the way and His high priestly intercessory prayer, the Lord Jesus led His men across the brook to the garden. Alfred Edersheim informs us that during that time of year the stream swelled, though it has long since dried up.[5] Identified by the Apostle John as Cedron, A. T. Robertson informs us the word means “Literally, ‘of the Cedars,’ ‘Brook of the Cedars.’ Only here in N.T.”[6]
John informs us only that they entered “a garden.” Why did John not name the garden for his readers? It is likely because of the relative insignificance of the name, in light of the fact that John’s Gospel was written two decades or more after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem when everything the Romans touched they destroyed as a tactic of warfare. When John wrote his Gospel the garden no longer existed, so why provide its name?
Before leaving John 18.1, allow me to reminisce. The greatest conversation recorded in the Bible has just concluded. From John chapters thirteen through sixteen, the conversation was between the Savior and His remaining faithful apostles. Chapter seventeen was that portion of the conversation between the Savior and His heavenly Father. Throughout the conversation, the emphasis was to love, to obey, to honor, and to glorify. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His actions recorded in this verse, demonstrates that God’s plan and purpose are fulfilled with the eternal Son of the living God obeying His heavenly Father and when His faithful disciples follow Him. Note that. Our concern is to follow Him. Period.
Next, THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE BETRAYER
John 18.2:
“And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.”
What John’s Gospel chooses to omit is interesting to consider. John is careful to record the greatest conversation that ever occurred, the first half being the Savior’s conversation with His eleven remaining men and the final portion being His high priestly intercessory prayer, recorded in John chapter 17.
John records the Savior’s arrival at the Garden of Gethsemane with His men, but mentions nothing of the Savior separating three of them from eight of them and then separating Himself from the three to fall on His face for prayer. Also, John does not mention the several occasions when the Lord Jesus Christ roused those three from slumber after He had directed them to pray that they enter not into temptation.
John’s Gospel records the arrival of the Savior and His men to the Garden of Gethsemane and proceeds directly to the awareness and the arrival of the betrayer, Judas Iscariot, with a contingent of soldiers to take the Lord Jesus Christ into custody. Our concern with John 18.2 considers four segments:
“And Judas also.”
With this phrase, the evangelist sharply distinguishes between Judas Iscariot as an isolated individual in the company that included the Lord Jesus Christ and His eleven faithful men. Be mindful that John wrote these words more than 60 years after the events of that night. Therefore, he wrote from the context of more than a half-century of reflection, consideration, and rehearsal of the events he recorded.
Despite the distance in time and experience, John is not dredging up old memories. Rather, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, he prepared this account of important events that occurred years earlier with perfect clarity and errorless precision. He had recorded the events that transpired in the Upper Room, with his memory of laying his head on the Savior’s breast. He recorded the Savior’s discourse beginning in John 13 and ending in John 16. He also related the Savior’s high priestly intercessory prayer for Himself, His faithful band of men, and those of us who would come after.
“And Judas also, which betrayed him.”
This is the seventh time in his Gospel that John informs his readers of the identity of Christ’s betrayer, the previous places being John 6.64, 71; 12.4; 13.2, 11, 21-30. What precisely did Judas Iscariot do? Judas gave the Lord Jesus up to the Jewish priesthood, who he had to know intended to kill the Savior. Thus, opposite to the motivation of the Savior to obey God, glorify God, and show His love for God, Judas Iscariot was focused on self, disobeying God, exalting himself, and exhibiting his concern only for himself. Yet, in doing so, God’s plan and purpose would still be fulfilled.
What was Judas’ motive for doing what he did? That is an irrelevant question, though he was given thirty pieces of silver as payment. What is significant is the wickedness of the deed, not the motivation behind it. We do know his price for the betrayal of thirty pieces of silver was a fulfillment of Zechariah 11.12:
“And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.”[7]
And we know his betrayal was the fulfillment of a prediction that was a thousand years old:
“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”[8]
“And Judas also, which betrayed him knew the place.”
The Garden of Gethsemane was in an olive orchard on the Mount of Olives. Therefore, it was private property. “The terminology (‘entered,’ later ‘came out’) suggests a walled garden.[9] “On the night of the Passover itself, Jewish law required that observing Jews remain within an extended city limit that included Gethsemane but excluded Bethany. Probably this walled olive grove was set aside by some wealthy supporter for the use of Jesus and His disciples.”[10]
To complete his part of the conspiracy, Judas Iscariot would likely have planned to take the Temple guards to the Upper Room first, then to the Garden of Gethsemane, and then to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus as a last resort. The Lord and His men regularly went there, so Judas knew the place. Did Judas expect some five hundred Roman soldiers also to be involved? We don’t know. It doesn’t matter.
Judas Iscariot, like most lost men, likely thought his decisions and his choices affected the outcome. However, the outcome is determined by God. Your decisions and choices reveal which side of the outcome you are on. By his own choices and actions, Judas showed himself to be against the Savior, against God, and so much against his own best interests, despite thinking he was serving himself.
“for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.”
Is it not ironic that the Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed by “mine own familiar friend” in their familiar place of refuge? Is it not also ironic that as the human race’s spiritual catastrophe began in a garden, the remedy for the human race’s catastrophe would be found in a garden? Do not imagine Judas Iscariot and the guards and soldiers accompanying him sprung a trap to catch the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. That was not at all the case.
When He first resorted to the Garden of Gethsemane with His twelve apostles, He already knew that it would be the place where His betrayer would know to come to Him, summoned by Divine Providence and an uncontrollable lust for money, to fulfill the next important step in the unfolding drama of redemption.
Did Judas Iscariot know the Savior? He knew Him well enough to betray Him. He knew Him well enough to identify Him to His captors. But he did not know Him nearly as well as he thought he knew Him. He did not know the Savior well enough to know that no one is successful as an enemy of the eternal Son of the living God. He did not know the Savior well enough to know that no one can outthink, out plan, or outmaneuver the all-wise God. So, Judas Iscariot knew about the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew where it was located. And he knew the Savior would be there. But he knew little else besides. So very typical of the lost.
Finally, THE ARRIVAL OF THE BETRAYER
John 18.3:
“Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”
Recall that the Lord Jesus Christ and His twelve disciples had gathered in the Upper Room for the celebration of the Passover meal. This is recorded in John chapter 13. At some point in the evening, the Lord Jesus Christ laid aside His garments, took a towel, and washed the feet of the twelve. He then told His men that one of them would betray Him, and as they were eating, He gave Judas Iscariot the sop. Judas then left the room to finalize his plans to betray the Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
After the betrayer had departed, the Lord Jesus Christ issued to His remaining apostles a new commandment, in John 13.34-35, new only because such a command had never before been uttered to the Lord’s little flock. It is with this command that the embryonic Church of Jesus Christ is directed what means to employ in their service to their Lord and Master:
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
After leaving the Upper Room, the Lord and His remaining men made their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, stopping along the way to pray His high priestly prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He separated from eight of His men and then from three of His men, events not recorded by John. We now take up the Gospel narrative as the Savior’s prayer season ends and He announces His betrayer's arrival. It may surprise you to discover how much more information is provided by the Apostle John in his Gospel that doesn’t survive translation very well:
The Greek word translated “band of men” is speῖra and refers to a cohort. This is a word that refers to a detachment of Roman soldiers. A full cohort was led by a Roman tribune, consisting of as many as a thousand men but usually amounting to around six hundred soldiers.[11] If this seems like too many soldiers, remember that 470 Roman soldiers were assigned to protect the Apostle Paul according to Acts 23.23. Though we do not know precisely how many Romans accompanied Judas, the Romans routinely faced rioting Jews in Jerusalem on high holy days. So, overwhelming numbers is not that much of a stretch.
Add to that “officers from the chief priests and Pharisees.” This word “officers” translates ὐperέtes, the word typically used for Temple police. It would be a squad of men supervised by a captain of the Temple who guarded the Temple precinct at night and had the authority to arrest.[12] Thus, it is no surprise that they would “cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”
All this adds up to a very serious escalation. Picture in your mind the Prince of Peace being set upon by a great many Roman soldiers and a large contingent of Jewish Temple police. And this is to take a single man into custody. But neither the Temple guards nor the Romans had any idea what lay in store. They rely completely on the authority of the Jewish religious authorities who, unbeknownst to them, had been plotting this man’s death for sometime.[13] But then, men in uniform have always been at the mercy of their civilian overlords. And what will be accomplished by Judas Iscariot’s evil intentions? The same thing that will be accomplished by the evil intentions of the chief priests and Pharisees. In their vicious and vociferous opposition to the plan and purpose of God, they unknowingly contributed to the fulfillment of the plan and purpose of Almighty God.
It has always been this way. Lucifer revolted against the reign and rule of God in heaven and persuaded a third of the heavenly host to follow in his rebellion. Yet, in doing so, they contributed to the plan and purpose of God being fulfilled.
Adam and Eve sinned against God at the instigation of the serpent, yet, in doing so, they contributed to the plan and purpose of God being fulfilled.
Sinful angels employed human women to produce a hybrid race, yet their rebellion recorded in Genesis 6 contributed to the plan and purpose of God being fulfilled.
So with the tower of Babel.
So with the disobedience of Abraham with Hagar.
So with the disobedience of Lot in the city of Sodom.
So with the disobedience of King Saul and the elevation of David to the throne.
This does not suggest that willful rebellion against God is a virtue. It is just that God will be glorified. God will be vindicated. His plan and purpose will be fulfilled.
From this meeting in the Garden of Gethsemane between the Lord Jesus Christ and His betrayer, He will be unjustly and illegally tried six times, three times by Jewish authorities, and three times by Gentile authorities. He will then suffer crucifixion, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
He will give up the ghost. His body will be buried. Three days later, He will rise from the dead. He will then ascend to His Father’s right hand in glory, where He is enthroned as I speak.
He will return in great glory and majesty to establish His millennial kingdom on earth. The Day of Judgment will take place. And throughout eternity, the Church of Jesus Christ will be used by our great and glorified Savior and Lord to glorify His Father, Ephesians 3.21.
These things being established in God’s eternal plan of the ages, I invite you to turn to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Salvation through faith in Christ is your only hope.
__________
[1] My introductory remarks are taken (with editing by me) from Curt Daniel’s excellent The History & Theology Of Calvinism, (Durham, UK: Evangelical Press, 2019), pages 238-244.
[2] Matthew 25.14-30
[3] Deuteronomy 30.15, 19; Joshua 24.15; First Kings 18.21
[4] 1 Thessalonians 2.13; 1 Corinthians 14.37
[5]Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah: New Updated Version, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1993), page 842.
[6] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol V, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1932), page 283.
[7] Matthew 26.15
[8] Psalm 41.9
[9] Andreas J. Köstenberger, John - ECNT, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), pages 504-505.
[10] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According To John (PNTC), (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), page 576.
[11] Ibid., page 505.
[12] Ibid., page 506.
[13] John 11.53
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