#183 Lu. 22:47-53  THE BETRAYAL AND ARREST OF JESUS

Introduction:

	It was at the Garden of Gethsemene where Jesus had engaged in
ardent prayer unto God the Heavenly Father, that He would now be
betrayed by Judas Iscariot and arrested by a large band of people
who had come from the temple for that purpose.

I.  The connection between the previous text and this text

	In our previous text Jesus and His disciples went into the
Garden of Gethsemene.  Jesus left the main group just inside the
gate and carried Peter, James and John with Him deeper into the
garden.  Then He left them and went about a stone's throw beyond
them so that He could spend time alone in prayer.  Luke does not
say so, but Matthew and Mark say there were three such prayers.
	This was a time of great emotional distress for Jesus.  His
blood pressure went up and the blood vessels underneath the skin
began to break so that the blood began to ooze out through the
pores of His skin.  He was in danger of immediate death from a
heart attack, stoke or from shock.  In order that He might live
long enough to go to the cross, God sent an angel to minister to
Him.  The angel apparently did a great job of strengthening Him
physically, because in our text today we will see that He is very
strong and very much in charge as the events transpire.
	After the first two prayers Jesus awoke Peter, James and John
and rebuked them mildly for not staying awake to watch and pray
as He had instructed them to do.  Matthew and Mark say that after
the third prayer when He found them sleeping again, Jesus did not
bother to wake them, but let them sleep until He saw the lights
of the arresting party coming in the distance.  Then He awoke
them and apparently led them back to the main group of disciples
who were waiting at the main entrance.
	I am not certain whether they were asleep or not.  It is
probable that some or maybe all of them were asleep and had to be
awakened as He had done with Peter, James and John.  But what I
want you to be aware of is the shocking scene that they awoke to.
I am not talking merely about the large crowd of people
approaching from the direction of Jerusalem.  I am talking about
the appearance of Jesus, Himself.  Jesus was a bloody sight.  His
face, His arms and His hands were a bloody sight as a result of
the blood which had oozed out through His skin.  The blood had,
no doubt, soaked through the clothes that He wore.  Even in the
moonlight the dark blood would show up real well where it had
soaked through his white linen garments.
    Before they could start asking questions, Jesus began talking
to them encouraging them to pray.  He was encouraging them to
pray for the special strength which they would need from God.
	Then while He was still talking to them, the arresting party
came abruptly upon them.  It was an unnerving experience for the
disciples.  It would get worse very quickly.

II.  The arrival of the arresting party

    V. 47, "And while he yet spake, behold a multitude..."
Matthew and Mark tell us that the multitude was not made up of
the common people with whom Jesus had been so popular.  Rather
these people were from the chief priests and elders.  Most of
them were Levites, who served in the temple as temple guards and
assisted the priests in many ways, such as getting wood and other
supplies for the temple and doing the necessary repair and upkeep
of the temple building and grounds.  At least those who served as
temple guards were armed with swords.  These were men who served
daily under the jurisdiction of the chief priests and elders and
were, therefore, very much in sympathy with their effort to
arrest Jesus and put Him to death.  They were not friendlies.
They were all very hostile toward Jesus.
	The crowd also had a few priests.  Some of them are called
"chief priests."  This term " chief priests" (pl.) does not mean
that the high priest was among them, but it does mean that they
were priests of very high rank.  They were in charge of this
mission to arrest Jesus.
	Some Bible students think that the Jewish officials had
received permission from the Roman officials to carry with them a
few Roman soldiers.  Carrying Roman soldiers with them would give
the appearance that they were on a perfectly legal mission and
would help keep them out of trouble with the Roman officials.
Yet the Roman soldier among them were not very numerous.  The
group was made up primarily of Jews who were under the
jurisdiction of the chief priests in the temple and were totally
hostile toward Jesus.  So the whole crowd was hostile toward
Jesus.

III.  The betrayal by Judas Iscariot

	There was one in the crowd who should not have been hostile
toward Jesus.  The man leading the pack should not have been
hostile toward Jesus.  He was one of the twelve.  He was an
apostle of the Lord.  (V.  47), "...and he that was called Judas,
one of the twelve, went before them..."  Of all people who should
not be leading this pack of hostile men, it was the man who was
leading them.  He had heard John the Baptist preach Jesus and had
been baptized by John.  He had walked with Jesus for the past
three years.  He had sat at the feet of Jesus and been taught by
Him for three years.  He had witnessed the miracles that Jesus
performed.  He had served as an officer in the church.  He,
himself, had preached Jesus to the people and proclaimed Jesus to
be the Messiah, the Christ of God.  This man most certainly
should not be the one who is leading the enemy out to arrest
Jesus and put Him to death.
    (V. 47), "...and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him."  This
seems strange to us altogether, because it is not our custom for
men to kiss men.  However, it was the custom in that day for men
to greet men with a kiss on the cheek.  It was a token of
friendship.
	Most of the men in the arresting party did not know Jesus by
sight.  Therefore Judas gave them a sign whereby they would know
that they were arresting the right man.  So Judas had told them
that the man whom he would kiss is the Christ.
    V. 48, "But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the
Son of man with a kiss?"  That dirty rotten scoundrel!  That
dirty hypocrite!  A kiss is a sign of friendship.  He betrayed
Jesus with a sign of friendship.  He betrayed Jesus into their
hands knowing that they intended to put Him to death and he did
it with a sign of friendship.  But Jesus knew that the kiss did
not mean friendship in the case of Judas.  It meant betrayal.

IV.  The apostles willing to fight for Jesus

    V. 49, "When they which were about him saw what would follow,
they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?"  You
will remember that there were two of the apostles who had swords.
We know that the Apostle Peter was one of them.  We do not know
who the other was.  At any rate, they asked or at least one of
them asked, "Do you want us to defend you with our swords?"  They
were both willing and ready to do battle for the Lord.  The
answer, of course, is that Jesus did not want them to defend Him
with swords.  He did not want anybody to do anything that would
hinder Him from going to the cross.  It is most certainly not
that He wanted to suffer on the cross.  We saw that when He was
in prayer in the Garden.  But He had surrendered Himself to the
Father's will to do whatever was necessary to save lost sinners
from hell.  For that reason He had resigned Himself to go to the
cross.  He knew that there was no other way to save lost men,
women, boys and girls.  So He intended to cooperate with them
fully and to allow them to carry Him to the cross.  He did not
want them to use their swords.
	However, one of those apostles did not wait for an answer and
before Jesus could answer he drew a sword out from under his
cloak and started swinging.  V. 50, "And one of them smote the
servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear."
All four of the gospel writers tell about this incident, but only
John tells us that it was the Apostle Peter.  The Apostle Peter
drew his sword and swung that sword at the nearest man.  That man
just happened to be the servant of the high priest.  I'm sure it
would not have made any difference to Peter if it had been the
high priest, himself.  Peter just swung his sword.  We are told
that he cut off the man's right ear.  I am sure he was not
swinging at the ear.  The way I picture it is that Peter swung at
the man's neck and the man ducked, turning his head over
sideways.  So Peter missed his throat and cut off his ear.  What
he had intended to do was to cut off his head, but instead he cut
off the ear.
	I cannot help but admire this man Peter.  He must have surely
known that he did not stand a chance against all of this great
big mob.  But he just could not stand idly by and watch them
carry off Jesus without doing something to defend Him.  So the
Apostle Peter intended to cut that man's head and then just keep
on cutting off heads until somebody cut off his head.  He had
told Jesus that he was willing to die for Him and he was ready to
do just that.
	It was Jesus who stopped him.  He did not stop him in time to
keep him from cutting off the man's ear, but He stopped him
immediately thereafter.  V. 51, "And Jesus answered and said,
Suffer ye thus far..."  That means, "Allow them to do all these
things.  They have come to arrest me and carry me to the cross
and you must not hinder them.  You are to allow them to do all of
these things."
	Then Jesus took the ear that had been cut off and
miraculously put it back on.   (V. 51), "...And he touched his
ear, and healed him."  Jesus just reached up and put it back in
the right spot and instantly it was healed just as though it had
never been cut off.  Jesus would not use His miraculous power in
His own defense, but He did use it for the good of the man whose
ear was cut off.  The other gospel writers say that Jesus made
the Apostle Peter put his sword back in its sheath.  He stopped
Peter from swinging at somebody else.  I strongly suspect that by
this action, Jesus also stopped the other apostle from swinging
his sword.  I think that if Jesus had not stopped Peter, the
other apostle with a sword would have automatically followed
suit.  Then I suspect that the others even without swords would
have gotten in the fight.
    So Jesus stopped further bloodshed at this point and it was a
good thing for the Apostle Peter and for all of the apostles that
He did.  If all of the apostles had joined in the fight trying to
protect Jesus, then all eleven of them would have been killed.
Only two of them had swords.  The others did not even have clubs.
They were no match for all this large group of men wherein a
goodly number had swords and the others had clubs.  They could
not have successfully defended Jesus.  So Jesus had a twofold
reason for stopping the Apostle Peter.  He stopped him first and
foremost because it was His intention to let them carry Him to
the cross.  He also stopped him because He did not want His
apostles slain by this mob.

V.  Jesus' rebuke of those who came to arrest Him

    V. 52, "Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains
of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come
out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?"  Jesus rebuked
the arresting party because they had come out for Him with swords
and staves (or clubs).  They acted as if they were out after a
viscous criminal.  It was as if they were after a thief who was
fully armed and ready to do battle with anybody who would attempt
to apprehend him.
	Jesus said in verse 53, "When I was daily with you in the
temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me..."  Jesus said,
"If you wanted to arrest me, you had plenty of opportunity when I
was in the temple with you.  Day after day I was with you in the
temple and you made no effort to lay a hand on me there.  You
could have, but you didn't.  Why would you come after me now with
swords and staves as though I were a highway robber?  We, of
course, know the answer.  They did not try to arrest Him when He
was with them in the temple because they feared the great crowds
of common people with whom Jesus was so popular.  They were
afraid that the crowds would have torn them limb from limb if
they had touched Jesus there.

VI.  The explanation by Jesus why they would be able to arrest
Him

	In the later part of verse 22 Jesus goes on to explain why
they are after Him now and why they will be successful in their
attempt to kill Him.  (V. 22), "...but this is your hour..." That
is, "This is your time to do what you want to do."  Jesus did not
use the word, hour, here in the sense of a "sixty minute hour."
Rather He was talking about "time."  He was saying, "This is your
time.  This is the time when you can do your thing.  This is the
time in which God the Father will allow you to successfully put
me to death.  This is your hour."
    Furthermore, Jesus said, (V.  22), "...and the power of
darkness." "This is not only your hour; it is the hour for the
power of darkness to be successful against me.  It is the hour in
which that old Devil, Satan will have His heyday against me.  He
will be able to do to me what He has longed to do for a long
time.  He will, for at least a little while, be successful
against me." When this is over, it would look as if the Devil had
won a final victory over Jesus.  It would not be a victory at
all, of course.  It would look like a victory.
	The arrest, trial and crucifixion would not be a victory for
Satan.  It would not be a victory for the Jewish leaders.  Let me
tell you who it would be a victory for.  It would be a victory
for every man, woman, boy and girl who wants to stay out of hell
and go to heaven.  It would be a victory for every lost hell
bound sinner who wants to be saved.  Since Jesus was going to the
cross, every lost sinner in the world would have an opportunity
to be saved.  But if Jesus had refused to go to the cross, there
would be no hope for anybody in the world to ever be saved.
Everybody would go to hell.  So in reality, Jesus was going to
the cross for us and it was a victory for us.  .
	But I want you to know that He went there willingly.  There
was no way in the world, they could carry Jesus to the cross
against His will.  God the Father would not force Him to go there
against His will and those Jews could not.  He just knew that it
was the Father's will for Him to go to the cross and He
surrendered Himself to go there willingly.

VII.  My gratitude that Jesus was willing to go to the cross

	Thank God that Jesus was willing to go to the cross.  Thank
God that when I was sixteen years of age, I heard the gospel
message and turned to Jesus as my Savior.  Thank God that the
most of you have trusted in Jesus and have been saved.  Thank God
that most of the people who are here this morning will never go
to hell.  Thank God that most of us will make it to heaven.
	But I thank God for something else.  I thank God that those
who are not yet saved have an opportunity to get saved.  You can
call upon the Lord Jesus Christ this morning and be saved this
morning.  Listen to Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Listen to Acts 16:31,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
Listen to John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."

Conclusion:
	
    Who this morning will come and get your eternal destiny
settled with God?