12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him. 13 First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When He had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” 24 Annas then sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of His disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
As we have seen often during our series, John’s Gospel is quite different to the synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke, including the events of Holy Week, which take us from Palm Sunday through to the resurrection of Jesus the following Sunday.
Instead of taking us on a meticulous journey along the timeline of events as the other Gospel writers do, John emphasises the fact that Jesus is the one who remains in full control of these events which lead to the cross where He dies as our atoning sacrifice.
Jesus has now been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He is taken to appear before Annas, the acting high priest, who was the father-in-law of the incumbent high priest Caiaphas.
What John does in the passage we’re looking at today is tell of two separate yet simultaneous events which he kind of intertwines to tell one story. One event, Jesus’ interrogation by Annas takes place in the palace of the high priest, while the second, Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus, happens outside in the courtyard.
Immediately after His arrest, the Roman soldiers took Jesus directly to the palace of Annas. Of the four Gospel writers, John is the only one who mentions both Annas and Caiaphas. Annas was the high priest until he was deposed by the Romans in 15 AD, after which various members of his family held the position. At the time of Jesus’ arrest and trial, it was his son in law Caiaphas’ turn, which is why John records in verse 24, “Annas then sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.”
When we think about Jesus’ arrest, we tend to think that all of the disciples deserted Him, but this is not true. We’re told that Peter and “another disciple” followed Him to the high priest’s palace. The unnamed disciple is almost certainly John himself.
Not for the first time, he doesn’t name himself, possibly out of modesty. If we jump forward for a moment to the last moments before Jesus’ death, we see that John was at the cross too. “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:26-27) So it is reasonable to assume that it was John who followed Jesus to Annas’ palace with Peter.
We’re told that John was known by the high priest, which meant he was able to enter the court with Jesus, but Peter remained outside. There was a servant girl who had the task of keeping unwanted visitors from entering. When John saw this, he “went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in,” as we’re told in verse 16.
And it was this servant girl who asked Peter as he entered the courtyard, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” (John 18:17) In response, Peter made the first of his three denials that he was a follower of Jesus.
Contrast this with his bold declaration in John 13:37. “Lord, I will lay down my life for you.” John Calvin wrote, “Now, at the voice of a single maid, and that voice unaccompanied by threatening, he is confounded and throws down his arms. Such is a demonstration of the power of man.” It’s important to note that when the woman asked Peter if he was a follower of Jesus, it was nothing more than a casual question. Peter was not being interrogated. She didn’t ask Peter if he was about to lead an armed revolt against the Romans, or if he was there to try and rescue Jesus from the Jewish authorities. She merely asked whether he was a disciple of Jesus as he entered the courtyard with John.
He probably would not have been allowed in had he replied that he was a follower of Jesus, but that does not excuse his denial. It’s a bit like having to make up a lie to cover up a previous lie, until eventually you find you are hopelessly caught up in a web of lies.
Once Peter made his first denial, it was easy to repeat it and almost impossible to go back and fix the mess he had started.
The lesson to us is that we need to be open and up front about our faith in Jesus Christ. The moment Peter identified himself as a stranger to Jesus, he became part of the crowd, as he joined them around a fire they’d made to keep warm. This is where we need to be so careful, and not be afraid to pledge our allegiance to Christ publicly, because if we don’t, we will find ourselves blending in with the unbelieving world.
Now, this does not mean we are to completely cut ourselves off from our non-Christian friends and family. Far from it, but we must remember Jesus’ words in John 15:18-19. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are called to be salt and light in the world, so we should always bear in mind the dividing line between ourselves as Christians, and those who are not. It must also be said that we need to guard against spiritual pride.
If you are a born again follower of Jesus Christ, it is only because God, by His sovereign grace has chosen you out of the world. We have nothing to boast about, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Peter though, in this case had crossed the line, which made it almost impossible to go back. Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” This was Peter’s mistake. There was almost certainly a fair amount of mocking of Jesus around the fire that night, but once he’d made his first denial, Peter would’ve found it very hard indeed to speak out against his new companions.
This all being said though, Peter does deserve some admiration for being there in the first place. He was after all, there because he had chosen to follow Jesus with John after He was arrested. The reason that Peter was there was his love for and devotion to Jesus. James Montgomery Boice wrote, “This is no miserable specimen chosen from among the ranks of Christ’s worst followers. This is the best. Yet it is precisely this one who falls, not only dreadfully but speedily.”
It’s easy for us, all these years later, to be critical of Peter’s failure, but there are some valuable lessons we can learn from his experiences that night. We hear often that it is hard to be a Christian, especially in a world which is becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Peter’s first mistake was overconfidence, something Jesus warned him about when he said in the upper room that he would lay down his life for Jesus. Peter eventually did, many years later, but there were some very difficult lessons he learned along the way.
In Mark’s account of Peter’s boasting he tells us that Peter even compared himself with the other disciples when he said, “Even though they all fall away, I will not. If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” (Mark 14:29, 31)
Peter completely over-estimated his strength of will and courage, which meant he was relying on himself, rather than on God.
Secondly, Peter failed to pray, despite Jesus urging him to do so. “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:46)
The irony is that it was Jesus, and not Peter who was in prayer earlier that evening. Boice writes, “If we were to pick someone who needed prayer, it would be Peter. Yet Peter is sleeping in the garden while the Lord is pouring out His soul before His heavenly Father.”
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to “pray without ceasing,” but how often do we utilise this wonderful gift we have? John MacArthur says, “This does not mean pray repetitiously or continuously without a break, but rather pray persistently and regularly.”
Thirdly, we are told that when Peter followed Jesus, he did so at a distance, according to Luke 22:54. We must remember the context here. It was Peter who had just cut off Malchus’ ear, so the situation was extremely tense as Jesus was led away, so we can’t be too critical of Peter, but the lesson for us is that following Jesus at a distance is the cause of many spiritual failures.
No one wants to be labelled a religious fanatic, but how does this reluctance actually affect our walk with Jesus? A number of years ago I had a meeting with one of my daughter’s teachers. We had a couple of questions about a particular book she was required to read, and the teacher’s opening question to me was, “Would you consider yourself to be a fundamentalist?” She caught me completely off guard, because I wasn’t expecting such a direct and pointed question to begin a conversation, but I remember thinking afterwards, is there really any other kind of Christian? The answer is no.
This doesn’t mean we should go around beating people over their heads with a Bible, but the non-believers we do know should be left in no doubt that we are Christians. How else are we to be salt and light? 1 Peter 2:9 in the KJV says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” So the next time you’re accused of being a little weird or peculiar because you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, say thank you.
The point is that Christians who follow Jesus at a distance, as it were, put themselves at risk of being exposed to worldly influences. With God’s help, we must guard our hearts from the lies of the devil. Proverbs 2:1-8 says, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of His saints.”
The scene now shifts to Jesus being questioned by Annas. As we saw last time, this hearing was illegal, as the Pharisees needed to fast-track everything through that night. Jesus had to be put to death the following day before sunset, which signalled the week-long Passover festivities.
We know from the other accounts that Caiaphas brought false witnesses forward to accuse Jesus, so all of this was taking place while Jesus was questioned by Caiaphas’ father-in-law Annas.
Interestingly, in verse 19 John writes, “The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.” We know that the Pharisees found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, which was a capital offence in Judaism, but why did Annas question Jesus about His disciples? The answer is in Luke 23:2, when the Jewish council took Jesus to Pilate. “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a king.”
Pilate couldn’t be bothered with what he considered to be an internal Jewish matter, but by falsely accusing Jesus of breaking Roman laws and threatening to overthrow the Roman government with a group of His followers was another matter. The Pharisees were covering all of the bases in their determination to get rid of this troublemaker once and for all. If their charges of blasphemy failed, they could have Jesus executed as a threat to the Romans.
Annas accused Jesus of raising up a bunch of rebels against the Romans and of heresy by teaching doctrines that opposed Judaism.
Jesus, in His reply, merely ignored the first part of Annas’ questioning. “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” (John 18:20–21)
By avoiding the subject of His disciples, Jesus was still protecting them from arrest. As for His teaching, Jesus said that witnesses would be easy to find, because He had been teaching publicly for three years, but not once could the experts in the law trap Him, although they had tried many times.
Just as Jesus has spoken openly to the world, so we are to follow His example. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:2, “We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
The power of the Gospel is the Gospel itself. We are not to tamper with it or change it in any way whatsoever in order to make it more appealing or less offensive to the world. Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary, “The doctrine of Christ, purely and plainly preached, needs not be ashamed to appear in the most numerous assembly, for it carries its own strength and beauty along with it.”
Another point to note in verse 21 is when Jesus says, “Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said,” He is bluntly reminding Annas that He, as a Jew, should be correctly tried under Jewish law, which did not allow the accused to be questioned. A verdict of guilt or innocence was the result of the testimony of eyewitnesses.
Annas would’ve been well aware of this, but by now, none of them (with the exception of Jesus, of course) were thinking straight. They just wanted their guilty verdict, no matter what it took. One of the officials even struck Jesus for correctly challenging Annas as he said, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” The whole thing was a sham from beginning to end, but Jesus remained calm and kept His composure throughout.
By now Annas had had enough, so he sent Jesus to appear before Caiaphas to see if he could do any better in getting Jesus to admit to the charge of blasphemy. John doesn’t record Jesus’ appearance before Caiaphas, again assuming that we already know what happened from the other Gospel accounts.
Matthew tells us what happened: “Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following Him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, ‘This man said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.”’ And the high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?’ But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to Him, ‘I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard His blasphemy. What is your judgment?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’” (Matthew 26:57-66)
By now, the trial of Jesus had descended into a complete mockery of the law which the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin were supposed to uphold, but Jesus remained calm. Why? Because He had an appointment with the cross - an appointment which had been made in eternity past.
More than 700 years earlier, Isaiah prophesied, “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)
For thousands of years, the Jews had longed for the promised Messiah. And now that He was finally here, instead of falling on his face in adoration and worship, the high priest twisted the ancient Jewish legal system and did whatever was necessary to have Him condemned to death. J. C. Ryle wrote, “He had only to command the confusion of His enemies, and they would at once have been confounded. Above all He was One who knew full well that Annas and Caiaphas, and all their companions, would one day stand before His judgment seat, and receive an eternal sentence. He knew all these things, and yet condescended to be treated as a criminal without resisting.”
John then takes us back to Peter, as he warmed himself next to the fire in the courtyard, awkwardly watching all that was happening.
“They said to him, ‘You also are not one of His disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with Him?’ Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.” (John 18:25–27)
Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that one of the reasons Peter was suspected of being a disciple of Jesus was his Galilean accent.
Paul wrote in Colossians 4:2-6, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison - that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
Just as Peter’s accent gave him away, does our “accent,” our gracious speech, seasoned with salt, give us away as followers of Christ?
One of the most piercing passages in the Gospel accounts is the reaction of Jesus when Peter denied Him for the third time in Luke 22:61-62. “The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.” We’re not told if Jesus’ look at Peter was one of pity, disappointment, sadness, betrayal or anger. Maybe it was a combination of them all, but we can only imagine how Peter must have felt, which makes Jesus’ subsequent gracious restoration of Peter after His resurrection so remarkable and so comforting for us too.
The truth is that because of our sin, we are no different to Annas, Caiaphas, the official who struck Jesus, and Peter, who denied even knowing Him. All we can say is, thank God for the cross, because it is there where the price of all of our sin, our denials of Christ, and our blasphemy against a holy God was paid by the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Just as Peter failed his Lord, so do we, but as John Newton, the author of the hymn Amazing Grace wrote towards the end of his life, “Two things I do know, I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour.”
This is why, some 30 years later, Peter was able to write in 1 Peter 1:19 about “the precious blood of Christ.”
And in the next chapter he writes about the glory of the cross which sets us free. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:24-25)
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 18:19-24
How should we follow Jesus’ example to “speak openly to the world?”
How should we deal with criticism from friends and family who are not Christians?
(See Colossians 4:2-6)
Read John 18:15-18 and 25-27
While we must admire Peter for his bravery in following Jesus (along with John) to the high priest’s palace, what are some of the errors he made which led to his denials of Jesus?
What can we learn from Peter?
We are told that Peter followed Jesus “at a distance.” (See Luke 22:54)
What are some of the dangers we face by following Jesus at a distance, rather than as closely as we should?
How does worldliness threaten our Christian walk, and what are some of your struggles in this area?