Did Jesus Know He Was Going to Be Arrested?

Tom: We’re continuing with the gospel—we’re in the Gospel of John:18:4Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
See All...: “Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye?” Now, of course, Jesus is in the Garden; they’d just left the upper room where they had the last supper, and He knows what’s going to happen. He already sent Judas out to do his thing, as it were. And they come to Him, and “He said unto them, Whom seek ye?”

Dave: And of course, this is a band of soldiers, armed band, coming to arrest Jesus. A number of times in the gospels Jesus says something like this: “What do you seek?” or “What do you want?” And you almost get the idea, Well, doesn’t He know, if He’s God?” Of course He knows. It clearly says, “…knowing all things,” but nevertheless, He wants them to express it. “Whom seek ye?” Of course, they answer Him: “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said unto them, “I am…” And Judas also which betrayed Him “stood with them. As soon that as he said unto them I AM…” (of course, “he” is in italics. “I am” is “Yahweh,” God’s name…”

Tom: Another declaration by Jesus of who He is…

Dave: Exactly. A declaration of His deity. They went backward and fell to the ground.

Now that’s interesting, Tom. When you worship God, you fall on your face before Him. The only time that we read in the Bible of people falling backwards, it’s the judgment of God coming upon them. But this is a big phenomenon. Benny Hinn has people fall backwards. There are all kinds of charismatic leaders—you see it on TBN all the time….

Tom: Be “slain in the Spirit” so-called?

Dave: They call it slaying in the Spirit. You touch them on the forehead, or blow on them, or whatever, and they fall backwards.

Tom: Rajneesh used to do that, Dave. We talked about him earlier.

Dave: Absolutely, all of the Hindu gurus…

Tom: Muktananda, certainly.

Dave: The Hindu gurus were very good at this. It’s called “Shakti-pat.” The “force touch.” Shakti is the goddess Kali, Durga, she’s the Star Wars “force.” The one with—oh, I don’t know how many arms she has, Tom, and she’s drinking blood…fresh blood out of a skull and has severed hands hanging around her—garlands of severed hands. And the Hindu says “Her beauty is in her terror.” Well, that’s “the Force” that we talked about earlier, and I’m sorry, if people are falling backward, I don’t know how you can justify this from the Bible, but they feel they’re experiencing something.

Anyway, these soldiers and the rabbis and Judas—all of them—when Jesus said, “I am…” they fall backward to the ground. Then He asked them again, “Whom seek ye?” They said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way.”

In other words, He’s intervening now on behalf of His disciples. Well, a number of reasons why He’s doing that, Tom. He has said….well, Peter said, “I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus said, “You cannot follow me now. You will follow me hereafter.”

And Peter indeed was crucified later. But if the disciples had been crucified on crosses with Jesus, you would have gotten the wrong impression: “Oh, they’re helping in the salvation.”

No, they’re sinners, and they need salvation. Furthermore, the Scriptures said He would be crucified with the wicked. So that wouldn’t have looked good. So Jesus is making certain that His disciples are not going to be crucified with Him. He is protecting them, and …

Tom: Dave, you see very clearly who is in control here. In other words, they may think they’re taking Him by force, but—certainly the initial reaction to Him, falling backwards, they weren’t going to…they were going to listen to what He had to say.

Dave: They’re not taking Him; He is allowing them to take Him, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And so, it says, verse 9, in fact says, “That the saying might be fulfilled which he spake: Of them which thou gavest me, I have lost none.” So He kept them safe to the very end, and now, Tom, this must have been such a shattering experience to the disciples. Well, they saw Him with a word tell the wind and the waves, “Peace, be still,” and ZIP! Just like that, there was a calm. They saw Him raise the dead. He fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes. I mean, the miracles that they saw Him do! And suddenly, He seems helpless. No wonder they were in confusion. But at the moment, Peter—Peter’s the one who said, “I’ll never forsake you! I’ll die with you!” And, in fact, we kind of overlook it, it says, “So likewise said all the disciples.”

They all said that, but Peter—listen to this: “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.” Even gives us his name. I imagine—I rather think Peter was aiming to take off his head. He was not a trained swordsman. It shows how inept we are when we try to defend the Lord with our own efforts, and Jesus has to rebuke Peter: “Peter, you don’t understand.” Peter was supposed to be…you were Catholic…he was supposed to be the first pope, remember? He didn’t get off to a very good start. When Jesus supposedly…

Tom: Infallibility hadn’t kicked in yet.

Dave: Right. When Jesus supposedly signed him up for this office in Matthew 16, and Jesus says, “I’m going to go to the cross. They’re going…I’m going to Jerusalem, and they’re going to kill me.” Peter said, “Far be it from you, Lord! You can’t think like that! This is defeatist thinking. You’re going to do it!”

And Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

So, the first pope—the first words out of his mouth after he is made the first pope, to deny the gospel, to deny the heart of the gospel that Christ must be crucified for our sins. It was all foretold in the Scriptures. Christ has wept in the Garden, and He’s asked the Father, “If it’s possible for man to be saved any other way, don’t make me go through with this.”

And God says, “No, it’s not possible.”

And now, Peter, true to his nature, and true to what he’s said, he’s going to prevent this. He’s not going to let the Lord go to the cross. He’s going to wipe these guys out. He’s going to be like some of David’s great men, mighty men in the Old Testament—one of them stood in a field of lentils and he killed 800 with his sword. And his hand clave to his sword, it says. Peter maybe has that kind of an inspiration, and he’s got it all wrong. The pope just got it all wrong.

Tom: And, Dave, they were told, time and time and time again, not just Peter, but the rest of the disciples, the kind of death that Jesus would have to go to. So—but they weren’t hearing it. At all.

Dave: It’s amazing, Tom, and I must confess, I’ve been studying the Bible on my knees for over 60 years, and how much do I really know? When the Lord…you know, the two on the road to Emmaus, it says…

Tom: I think I was with them.

Dave: ...He opened to them the Scriptures: “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” And after He has made Himself known to them and then vanished, they say, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

What an experience it’s going to be to meet the Lord, and He’s going to really reveal Himself and the Scriptures to us. I’m afraid that I’m just like Peter and the rest of them—not hearing very much of what the Lord really says.

Tom: But it’s exciting nevertheless…the…Just as we go through it, the Lord, He doesn’t leave us nor forsake us, the Holy Spirit is there to continue to convict, to teach us, to encourage us. But we’re not very good pupils sometimes, Dave.

Dave: We have to come back to verse 10 and talk about that sword. Why did Peter even have a sword? That would be interesting. In fact, Jesus told them, “If you don’t have a sword, sell your garment and buy one.” Tom, that’s worth considering. Maybe we can do that next week.

Tom: Dave, does this have anything to do—just to help our audience, here, and myself as well, because I’ll be here next week—does this have anything to do with whether we’re to defend ourselves as believers?

Dave: Whether we should go to war, you know, and so forth.

Tom: Or be pacifists…

Dave: Totally nonviolent… I don’t think you can teach nonviolence from the Bible. In fact, Jesus said, “If you don’t have a sword, buy one!” He’s leaving them. They won’t have Him to protect them any more. And they said, “Master, we have two swords.” So Jesus must have known—they’d been carrying these swords with them all the time. He said, “That’s enough.”

Tom: Right.

Dave: Well, we should come back and talk about that, Tom.