I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verse 43, as we are going to study the arrest of Christ together. You know, when Christians are saying, "What would Jesus do?” Get arrested is not usually one of the answers to that question, and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. In fact, his arrest kicks off his trial, which kicks off all of the suffering and the mocking and the beating and the crucifixion, which leads to his resurrection. And so, we're coming into the end of the Gospel of Mark. Lord willing, on the last Sunday of October, we're going to celebrate Easter all over again, our second Easter of 2026, as we come to the end of the Gospel of Mark.

But today, we want to look at a scene that often gets overlooked in all that Jesus does at the end of his life. One of the things is he gets arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so, I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. And out of respect for God's word, let's all stand for the public reading of Scripture. In fact, if you don't have a Bible, there's a handout there in your bulletin where we have printed up these verses, so you can read along with us. This is Mark 14:43-52. This is the Word of God.

And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant[a] of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled. And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. And in this scene, I want to draw your attention to four characters you could follow. So, if you're taking notes, that's your first blank there at the top. I'd love for you to take notes as we go through this text together. Four characters that we're going to see in this text that you could follow, and it happens quickly. If you look at the note sheet there, circle “immediately” in verse 43. “Immediately” has been a key word in the Gospel of Mark. We haven't seen it for a while since chapter 11, but Mark writes how it seems like these things are just happening so quickly or at once. Look down at verse 45, and you see how Judas goes up to him at once. Circle that. It's the same Greek word. So, the impression we're given is that Jesus has been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane three times. He's come to his disciples Peter, James, and John, and they were sleeping and not praying. And then, all of a sudden, immediately, at once, here's Judas, and here are men with clubs and swords, and they're coming to arrest Jesus. The feeling that Mark is giving is that the disciples are still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, and they're unprepared. Here comes Judas right up to Jesus, giving him a kiss to betray him.

So, this is the first character that you could follow. Number one: “The Betrayer, Judas.” It says one of the twelve. So even when Judas is selling him out with a kiss, it wants to make sure that you remember. Yeah, this is Judas, one of the twelve disciples, one of the twelve guys, one of the twelve that make up Jesus' team for the last three years, he's being betrayed by one of his own.

So, what would lead Judas to become the betrayer and betraying someone with a kiss? I mean, it's dark in the Garden of Gethsemane, so this is his sign. Like, hey, whoever I kiss, he's the one. In case they couldn't figure out who it was in the darkness, but what a twisted way that comes across to betray someone with a kiss. This was a common form of greeting at this time in a lot of Scriptures. It says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” It was a way to show someone, I see you, I welcome you, I care for you, but this was now a symbol of his betrayal. It reminds me of Proverbs 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” And that's what we have here, the kiss of the betrayer, signaling to the whole crowd, he's the one. Lay hands on him. Seize him.

Now, why would Judas betray Jesus? Have you really tried to think this through before? I would imagine when Judas became one of the twelve disciples, he was not intending on betraying Jesus. I don't think Judas was there at all their meals together and all their times of teaching, or all the times they were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. I don't think Judas is thinking I'm the mole the whole time. I would imagine he really did want to follow Jesus, but see, that's the problem for a lot of people. A lot of people want to follow Jesus, but they also want something else. And what Judas wanted was money, and that became very clear here in Mark chapter 14. Go back to verse 5. Do you remember the woman who anointed Jesus with this oil? And remember what Judas said in Mark 14:5. For this ointment, this could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor. And they scolded her. Judas is saying, no, this woman shouldn't have used that ointment to prepare Jesus for burial. We should have sold that. We could have given it away to the poor.

Now, what we found out in our study of the thirty pieces of silver that Judas eventually sells Jesus out for is that out of all the disciples, Judas was in charge of the money bag, and that Judas would even steal out of that money bag. So, he's thinking we should have sold that and given it to the poor, not because he wants to send the gospel all over the world, but he wants to take some of it for himself. And so, there's a real conflict here. Judas is saying we should have sold that. Jesus is saying, no, what that woman did was a way to prepare me for what I'm about to do to die and rise again. You see a conflict between Jesus and Judas. And then look at verse 10. After this conflict, “Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him” what, everybody? Money. Oh yeah, you tell us where Jesus is going to be. We'll come get him, and you'll get money.

So, you can see that Judas, although I think at some point he did want to follow Jesus, he also wanted money, and that's what led him astray, to betray our Lord. In fact, under the betrayer, could you write down chapter 4, verse 19? Because we saw that the deceitfulness of riches is one of the things that chokes the Word. That's what chapter 4, verse 19 of Mark said in the parable of the soils. Some people, when they hear the word, they're like, I want Jesus. I want to be saved from my sins. I want to be in his kingdom forevermore. Yes, following Jesus sounds good, but not only do they want to follow Jesus, they also want to fulfill other desires, and those other desires choke out the Word, so they prove unfruitful. And one of the other things you can want besides Jesus is the deceitfulness of riches where you think you're getting something for yourself when you're really selling your own soul. And you can write down chapter 10, verse 23. Do you remember the rich man who came up to Jesus and knew he was the teacher and knew he had the way of eternal life and he kept the commandments from his youth and he wanted to receive eternal life. He wanted to follow Jesus. What did Jesus say to this rich man? “Go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.” And the rich man went away, what, everyone? Oh, he went away sad because he wanted to hang on to his possessions. And what did Jesus say in Mark 10:23? How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

So, this idea that Judas was twisted because he wanted money as well as Jesus. This is a real case study in how this works. Turn with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. I need everybody to grab your Bible and go to 1 Timothy 6:9-10, where it warns us that this is a reason some people fall away. I don't know if it started with, I hate Jesus. A lot of the people that I've seen fall away from church. It didn't start out with a problem with Jesus. It started out with they want something else besides Jesus, and then the thing that they want becomes a conflict with Jesus, and then eventually they turn against Jesus because of this other thing that they want. And look at how 1 Timothy 6:9-10 warn us. They hear this passage is about godliness with contentment, and we brought nothing into the world; we'll take nothing out of the world. If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But verse 9, 1 Timothy 6:9, “Those who desire to be rich fall into” what does it say, everybody? Temptation. That's what we're supposed to be praying for God to lead us out of temptation. Well, if you desire to be rich, you're going to go into temptation. It says, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

So, under the betrayer, can you write down these two phrases? The desire to be rich and the love of money. That's what twisted Judas. Okay, the desire. Now, notice the problem is not the money itself. The problem is not even in being rich. Notice the problem is in the desire to be rich. The problem is in the love of money. The problem is that your heart wants something you don't have, and that desire of your heart is now competing with your heart following Jesus Christ and wanting him. And so, it says in 1 Timothy 6:10, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith. And if you ever think of somebody who fell away from the faith because of money, you can remember the man who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, because they got into an argument about what to do with money, and then he sold the information of where Jesus would be on this night; he gave it to the chief priests, scribes, and elders because they promised him money. And so, make sure that you don't let the love of money or the desire to be rich twist you away from Jesus Christ. That's one of the characters you could follow.

Go back to Mark 14 and let's meet the second character. Because after Judas betrays him with a kiss and they seize him and lay hands on him, well, look at verse 47. In Mark 14:47, we meet our second character, one of those who stood by, and he drew his sword and he struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Let's meet character number two, the fighter. We've got a fighter here. You can see him all the way to the left in our picture. You can literally see the ear detached if you look closely at the picture. And I've never heard of an ear shot before. Usually, it's a head shot. We would call that a miss, ladies and gentlemen. Now, just one guess: Who do you think the fighter might be? Anybody want to say his name right now? Peter. Okay. If you've been studying the disciples, it's not hard to imagine who this would be. In fact, Mark must have thought Peter had been mentioned enough by this point of the gospel. The apostle John, he had no problem saying who it was. In John chapter 18, he says, "Then Simon Peter,” notice name before Jesus, name after Jesus. He gives his full name there.

Everybody, I'll tell you exactly who it was with the sword. In fact, John loved sharing information about Peter's life. Some of you may know on the glorious day of resurrection of our Lord, they ran to the tomb, and who got there first? John wants you to know that he got there first, and Peter came later. That's what John wants you to know. Yeah, it was Simon Peter. I'll tell you who it was. He had a sword and he drew it and he struck the high priest’s servant, and he cut off his right ear. And you know what? The servant's name was Malchus. He had a mom. People loved him. Yeah. So, Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” If you were here last week, you know what the cup is. It's the cup of what everybody? The cup of wrath, of judgment that Jesus is going to have to drink for our sins. And right before this, when Jesus was praying with his face down on the ground in the garden, what did he say to the Father? “Remove this cup from me.” But then three times he prayed, “yet not what I will, but what you will.” And now, what is he saying to Peter? Hey, Peter, put away your sword. It's time for me to drink the cup. See, Jesus, because he prayed, he's now prepared to do the Father's will. But see, Peter, he wasn't praying three times. Peter was sleeping, and Peter is ready to fight. But it's not the right fight.

In fact, go to Luke 22:51, where Jesus said, no more of this, and he touched his ear and healed him right there on the spot. So, Peter's ready to put up a fight with his sword, but it's not really the fight that we're looking for. It's not really the fight of faith. See, Peter's the one who thinks that he stands, but he needs to take heed lest he fall. See, falling away doesn't always look like weakness, doesn't always look like a divided heart. It doesn't always look like drifting away, falling away. Sometimes it looks like, look at me, I can do it, I'll make it, I'll put up the good fight. But it's all self-reliance. It's not really faith. And self-reliance over time will always lead to a fall. In Mark 14, go back to verse 29. Remember when Jesus promised that all the disciples will fall away? What did Peter say in Mark 1425? Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not.” And then what did Jesus promise Peter? Oh no, Peter, actually “tonight before the rooster crows twice, you're going to deny me three times.” And what does Peter say to that? He said emphatically, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you.”

Peter has a strong willpower, but it's not real power, and so he's ready to fight, but he is going to end up falling, and we're going to get to the passage eventually, where he denies that he even knows what they're talking about, or even knows Jesus three times. He's going to lie about his relationship with Jesus before this rooster crows twice. We're going to get there in a sermon called denial, but see, Peter's, he wants to fight, but it's not a good fight. It's not the fight of faith. It's just there are so many people at church these days that are trying hard to do good. They want to become better people, and they're like hanging on with white knuckles. Like I can do it. I can stop this sin. I can love this person. I can do this good thing. They are trying very hard. But talk to many of these people, they're very frustrated because they try, and then what happens after they try for a while? They fall because you can try to do it, but you don't have the ability to actually do it.

And Peter here, he's meant to be the example. He comes out swinging, but what is he even doing? It's just his own effort. And so, if you're one of those who think that you stand, you need to take heed lest he fall. The way you can know you're self-reliant is when you don't pray. If you're not asking for God to do it, that means you're trying to do it, and if you're trying to do it, it's only a matter of time till you're not able to do it at all. And so, Peter, he's the fighter. He has good intentions, but not good follow-through. And we're going to see his denial. So, we'll get back to Peter later on.

Go back to the text. Let me show you the third character you could follow, and it's in verse 50, and it's in the plural here. What we've seen, Judas, he's one of the twelve. We've seen Peter; he's like the leader of the twelve. What about the other ten? Well, here they are in verse 50, And they all left him and fled.” Let's get this down for character number three: the ones who fall away, and he didn't just say this about Peter. He said they will all fall away, and they all said like Peter, "We're not going to fall away.” Well, verse 50 says “they all left him and fled.” They're running through the garden in the darkness for their lives, and then you get one of the strangest accounts in all of Scripture. In fact, the people who put the English translation of the Bible together, they don't even know what to do with verses 51 and 52. See how they put them in a little section all by themselves? You could just write awkward all the way around that section. Okay, I don't know if you ever thought about this before, but apparently, when they're grabbing Jesus and they're seizing him and they're starting to grab the other guys, and the other guys are starting to leave and run, well, there's a young man there who's following Jesus, and he's just got a linen cloth around his body. And when they grab him, he leaves the linen cloth and he runs away naked. Have you ever read this scripture before? Now, you could read a lot about it. There's a lot of speculation, and what people guess or they theorize is that this is Mark, the one who wrote this gospel, and that this is him being there on that night. And kind of the reasoning would go that in Acts, chapter 12, when Peter gets out of prison, when he's miraculously freed from prison in Acts 12, he goes to John Mark's mom's house. So, it must be this place in Jerusalem. In fact, was it the upper room where Jesus and his disciples had the Last Supper, or was it in that area? Did Mark see them going to the garden? Quickly throws on a robe and then follows along with them to the garden to see what adventures Jesus and his disciples are up to on this Passover night. So, he's not fully dressed, he's not fully prepared, and so then when they come to seize him. Oh, he's running and he's running away naked.

So, there's a lot of speculation about this and a lot of thought, could it be Mark? I mean, John in his gospel, he doesn't refer to his name. He just refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Is this Mark saying he was also there on that night, and this is what happened to him? I don't know for sure if it's Mark, but I do know that it's meant to give us the picture that these disciples were exposed. They were not prepared for this moment like they thought they were, and the idea of one of the disciples running away naked is like a picture of how unprepared they were. They weren't even dressed for action. They weren't even ready for what was about to happen.

Go with me to Hebrews, chapter 4, everybody. If you've got a Bible, I need you to turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, because I think this picture of all these disciples at dinner with Jesus, saying, we're not going to fall away, I'm not going to fall away. And then, no, they are all falling away. They're running away. One of them is running away naked because they grabbed his clothes when they were going to arrest him. So, no, Jesus said you will all fall away, and they didn't listen to Jesus. In fact, they contradicted Jesus. They thought they knew better than Jesus. And where do we see them now? No, we see what Jesus said is exactly what happens, and they have been exposed. Look at what it says here in Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12. It talks about the Word of God, and it says, " For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

The Word of God knows you better than you know yourself. If you read the Bible, if you hear sermons coming from the Scripture, you will hear things about yourself that you wouldn't fully realize unless God was telling you who you are. And it's saying, the Word of God, it's alive, and it can cut straight to your soul. It can get into the things that you think in your innermost being. It is amazing to me. Where next week we'll celebrate twelve years of Jesus building his church in Huntington Beach. So, I've been here now for twelve years preaching in Huntington Beach, and the amount of people that you were looking right at me when you were preaching that one part of the sermon, you were looking right at me. You knew who told you. Was it my wife? Did she tell you? How did you know? Like the amount of people that have said that to me is a lot of people at this point, and usually I'm thinking, brother, I didn't even know you were in the room when I was talking. Right? It's not me. Nobody at your house ratted you out. I don't know. He knows, and he put it down. And what you're hearing is God's Word, and his Spirit is convicting you. And see, when you get convicted by the Holy Spirit, you can either listen to what the Spirit's saying about you, or you can say, that's not me. I won't fall away. I'll be fine. When Jesus says you're going to fall away, and you say, no, not me. That maybe somebody else. I hope somebody else is blessed by that, but not me, Jesus. See, that's your choice, and I see that choice happening every Sunday here at this church, where the Word of God says something, and people think they know better than what God says about themselves, and other people they feel the conviction of the Word of God, and they humble themselves before God, and they say, well, if that's true, I've got to change the way I think.

People feel like they're being exposed by the Word of God, like it's showing them who they really are. And the truth is that what God says about you is true, and it will be revealed to be true. And so, the disciples, hearing you, will all fall away. No, not me, not us, no way. And then one of them running away naked is a great picture of if you don't listen to the Word of God, you will be exposed, because what he says about you is true, whether you want to accept it or not. And so, you're either going to accept it before him to whom you must give account, or you can hear it and believe it now and change your mind and align your thoughts with God's Word. You can be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and you can see what is God's will for your life, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So, when you come to church and you hear the word of God, just like those disciples heard what Jesus said about them, and they decided not to believe it, but it was proven to be true. When you hear the Word of God, it's an important moment for you. It's a decision moment because you either take what God says about you, even if it's hard to hear, even if it's convicting, you either take it to heart and it changes your mind and it changes the way you think, or you reject it, and then you'll be exposed that it was true later on. And so, when you see those who fall away, and there's that weird account, that strange account of one of the young men following Jesus running away naked. Yeah, I remember he told them they would fall away. They didn't listen to him, and they were exposed. When Jesus says something to you, listen to what Jesus says. So many who fall away have been to church and they thought the sermon was for somebody else, but the Word of God is cutting to your heart, and it's exposing who you are, and you need to take what God says, hear it and take it to heart. These disciples, can you imagine if they had said, what do you mean we're going to fall away? What is that? What should we do instead? Jesus, teach us more about this. I don't want to fall away, but you're telling me I am. Teach me about it. Show me. Search me. Lead me in your way. But they instead, in their pride, said, nope, not me, and now here they are. Yes, exactly you. You all fell away.

Now go back to Mark 14 because there's one more character, and this is the one that I want you to follow. This is the one that we're here to see. There's a lot going on in this scene, betrayal with a kiss, a sword cutting off somebody's ear and a guy running away naked. There are a lot of things you could talk about at lunch today, but the character that you want to follow is number four: He is “The one who remains.” There is only one who remains faithful and true to the end, and his name is Jesus. And he's known in Revelation, chapter 1 as the “faithful and true witness.” It describes him throughout the book of Revelation. In fact, when he comes riding on the horse out of heaven, there he is, faithful and true. Jesus is here to do the will of his Father. He's here to do what the Scriptures have prophesied. He's here to do what he said he would do. Jesus is standing there right in the middle of this chaotic scene, and he is ready to be arrested. Have you ever been arrested? This is not something that Christians think. Someday I'll get arrested like Jesus, right? Well, maybe some of us will get arrested like Jesus someday. I don't know what the future holds, but I know that most of us who have gotten arrested, and by the way, if you're new to our church, we have a lot of people who've been arrested at this church. In fact, I think we've got more people who've been arrested at this church than maybe any other church I've ever been a part of in my life. And you know why they got arrested? It's because they did the crime. That's why they got arrested? They got busted for something that they actually did. And some of the brothers that I know here at this church that at one point were criminals who got arrested are now because they repented of their sin, because they put their faith in Jesus, because of the gospel, the power of the gospel of Jesus. We have some people that used to be criminals here at this church. They are the people I would trust more than anybody else at this church. That's the truth. Some of the most trustworthy men that I know as my friends and brothers in Christ, they got arrested one day, and they're not the same person they were on that day they got arrested.

So, we've seen Jesus save a lot of people. But see, the key about this arrest is that Jesus doesn't deserve to get arrested? In fact, Jesus exposes that. Look at the two verses where Jesus speaks, verses 48 and 49. And when Jesus said to them, and he's talking now to the crowd, Judas is coming up, Malchus is rubbing his ear, and then there are all these guys with swords and clubs. Now let's think about the swords. Who would have swords? Well, Roman soldiers would have swords. The Romans were not allowing the Jews to run around with swords because the Romans were there at the Antonia Fortress. They're making sure there's no kind of uprising during the feast of the Passover. So, if there are people with swords coming, they're Roman soldiers. Who's got the clubs? Well, those are probably the temple guards. That's what they'll allow the Jews to have, who are keeping their peace among their religious activities in the temple. So, the clubs probably belong to the guys working for the chief priests and elders and scribes of the Jews, and then the swords probably belong to the Romans soldiers who are working ultimately for Pilate, and it's a mishmash of them coming to Jesus. And just listen to the logic of what Jesus says here in verse 48, “Have you come out as against a robber?” Like, am I a criminal? Is that why you guys need these swords and these clubs? Look, look. Are you coming to capture me? Day after day, I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. Hey, this is interesting. You guys are coming all here to the garden at night because I just threw a bunch of stuff around in the temple earlier. I just taught against the scribes in the temple. I was teaching all day. People were asking questions. Some of them to stump me, and I was answering questions all day long in the temple. I was holding court and doing my father's business. And if I was doing something wrong at any moment, you could have come and got me right there where everybody knew I was in the temple. So why are we here doing this at night, gentlemen?

Just with this simple description, he exposes the utter hypocrisy of what is taking place. He's not some criminal on the run. He's not someone who's going to put up a fight. He's not someone who's done anything wrong. Here is something you will never find again on planet Earth. Here is an innocent man, a righteous one, and now you're going to come and treat him like he is a criminal. Now he says something that we need to think about at the end of verse 48. He says, here's why he's going to let them arrest him, basically, “But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.”

So, Jesus, we know is committed to doing the Father's will, and the Father has already said many things about the Messiah and the Christ. So, I want to try to figure out what Scripture is Jesus fulfilling by getting arrested when he did nothing wrong. Well, if you go over to the Gospel of Matthew on this same passage, Matthew 26:56, it says, "But all this has taken place that the Scriptures and notice here it gets more specific, the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled. So, the Scripture that Jesus is thinking of fulfilling here when he's getting arrested is a Scripture in the prophets, and then if you go over to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verse 37, earlier, when he and the disciples were talking about swords in something that's only in the Gospel of Luke, he said, "For I tell you the scripture that must be fulfilled in me.” And he was numbered with the transgressors. What does transgressor mean? Someone who breaks the law. He is numbered with those who break the law. “For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” Think about getting arrested. Think about when you we go out and there are donuts and people are hanging out. Kids are on the bounce houses in the courtyard. Huntington Beach Police Department comes in, guns drawn, weapons in hand, and they get one of us down on our knees, hands behind our head, and they arrest us. Would that be a dramatic scene? Would that be like, whoa, what's happening here? Right. This whole idea we've seen it in shows. Maybe some of us have seen it in real life. The idea of getting arrested? Whoa, that seems like a big deal. And we know that kind of goes to like where the person gets processed and they get a mug shot and they're like holding those numbers there in their mug shot. They get one front way, they get one sideways, and then they get processed. They’re put into holding. Like we have an idea of how the whole process of getting arrested goes, and Jesus is here to fulfill a prophecy that he's going to get numbered with those who have broken the law. There's going to be a case file for the arrest of Jesus Christ when he's not a robber; He's done nothing wrong.

Now, when it says here “he was numbered with the transgressors,” that's Isaiah 53:12. Can everybody grab your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah 53:12? Going through the Gospel of Mark, we have really learned a lot about Isaiah 53:11-12, which up until our study of Mark are not the most famous parts of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 is this epic prophecy of “the suffering servant, a man of sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way. But the Lord put on him the iniquity of us all.” Great passage in Isaiah 53. Maybe you've heard it before. Maybe you have it memorized. Maybe you've shared it with someone. But the last two verses, we don't talk about that much. But it seems like Jesus talked about them a lot, and so we're learning these two verses. Look at what it says in verse 11, “Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.” So, basically, he's going to go through agony. But then it's going to lead to a good result. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, he didn't do anything wrong. My servant makes many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and he makes intercession for the transgressors. He gets numbered as one of the criminals, so that many can be counted righteous.

Let's get that down for our first dash under point number four: “Jesus is unjustly arrested, so we are counted righteous. He is going to go through the arrest like he did something wrong because he wants to make many righteous, and so he is going to be treated as if he were us, so we can receive his righteousness. And this is an amazing thing. It's called justification, where God in heaven declares you righteous, not based on anything you've done, but based on what Jesus has done. The righteousness is transferred to your account. Man, can you imagine if you had to go like to court before God for your sins? Can you imagine if there was going to be a trial for all the sins that you've done in your life, and you were going to have to stand before God? And imagine if it became clear that God knew all the things you did in your life. In fact, it says that in heaven there's a book written. In this book is what? Your life. It's what you've done. And so, what if they opened up the book on your life and like, hey, you did this. Here's the punishment. Hey, you did this crime. Here's the time. And then, what if Satan is the prosecuting attorney in this courtroom? Satan, the accuser of the brethren, and Satan starts coming in and saying, yeah, they're not a real one. They're not really following Jesus. They did this. Look at their hypocrisy here. Look at what they did over there. Here's a case being built against you. It's a case of things you actually did, and here comes Satan to accuse you. And then all of a sudden, your defender, your attorney, he stands up and he intercedes for you, even though you've broken the law. He comes up and he says, no, no, no, no! I've already taken their punishment. I already died so that they could live. I shed my righteous blood to pay the atonement for their sin.

No, you can't accuse this one anymore. You can't judge this one. I've already taken that for them. The arrest of Jesus is the beginning of him suffering all kinds of things for what you did, and not only does he get numbered in your place so you can be counted righteous, he now intercedes. So, when you pray, God, please forgive me for my sin, Jesus is saying, yes, forgive them because I paid for it with my blood. Because I drank the cup of wrath for their sin. Here's Jesus claiming you because he suffered for you. Can anybody give me an amen here today? He was numbered as a lawbreaker, and here's what you need to see is Jesus let them arrest him. Okay, this wasn't like Jesus was overpowered and he had to go. It wasn't like when they laid hands on him and seized him, that was too much for Jesus. Turn with me to John, chapter 18 because I’ve got to share with you John's account of the arrest of Jesus. Mark makes it very clear that he's fulfilling the Scripture. What Scripture is he fulfilling? A prophecy. What prophecy? To be numbered with the transgressors, getting processed like a lawbreaker, like a criminal, being treated like a robber, even though he's right there teaching in the temple. But look at what John says. John 18:4, “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” So, again, what does John want you to know? Jesus already knows how this whole story goes. He knew what was going to happen to him. All of the false accusations, all of the beating prophesy who hit you as they punch him in the face, the whipping of his back, the pounding of the crown of thorns into his head, the mockery as they nail him to the cross naked. He knew all that was coming, and especially he knew about drinking that cup of wrath. And even though he knew all of this, “He came forward, and he said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am He.’” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them, and when Jesus said to them, "I am He," They drew back and fell to the ground. Did you know that that happened? Like I don't know how Mark left that out, honestly. Like I'm glad John put that in there because that's awesome. A whole mob of men come to arrest you, and you step forward and you say, "Who are you seeking?” They say, "Jesus of Nazareth.” You say, “I am,” which in the Gospel of John is very significant. There's one time where Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am,” and they pick up stones to stone him for blasphemy because they realize that he's claiming to be God. He's claiming to be one with the Father because YHWH is “I am that I am.”

So, every time in the Gospel of John, when Jesus says “I am,” they pick up what he's doing. He's claiming to be God, and so now when they get their mob together and they come to arrest him, he says, who are you looking for? And they say, "Jesus of Nazareth.” And He says, "I am,” and they fall to the ground by the word of his power, his enemies kiss the dirt. They're not arresting Jesus. Jesus is submitting to the Father's will and letting them take him in. It's like he has to wait for them to dust themselves off. In verse 7, when he asked them again, "Whom do you seek?” and they said, "Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He.” So, if you seek me, look at this. Let these men, the guys who are bailing on you right now, the guys who are leaving and fleeing and running away naked.

This is what's so amazing about Jesus. You're bailing on him, and he still has your back. No one will ever get your back better than the Lord Jesus Christ. You may have many friends in this life, and some of them might lie to your face. Some of them may betray you. Some of them may sincerely want to help you, but they will just fall away and not be able to. And you will be disappointed by many people in this life, but one of them will not be named Jesus Christ. He is our never-failing friend, and even when he's on his face on the ground asking the Father, remove this cup from me, it's so much, “yet not what I will, but what you will.” Three times, while he's praying in agony in the garden, he goes over to Peter, James, and John and says, are you guys sleeping? Wake up! You should watch and pray. When he's going through it, he still cares for his disciples, and now they're abandoning him. Now they're falling away, just like he said. And what is he saying to those who supposedly have authority over him, as they're supposedly arresting him? He's saying, okay, you can take me, but you're going to let these men go. You don't think they could have arrested the disciples? See, the disciples, they ran away just like Jesus said, but the reason they got away is because of what Jesus said. Let these men go. Even when he's getting arrested, Jesus is in charge. What an amazing Savior that goes through pain and agony, and he's still thinking about you.

Let's get that down for our second dash: “Jesus is left and we are kept.” Jesus is left and we are Kept. Like Peter's over him here, denying Jesus, but Jesus isn't denying Peter. Here are the disciples lacking faith, being faithless, but Jesus is still faithful to them. What a relationship we are blessed to have with Jesus, where even when we don't do what we're supposed to do, Jesus never fails us. Now, when it says here, look when he says, "Let these men go, verse 9, this was to fulfill the Word that he had spoken of those whom you gave me. I have lost not one, and he said that back in chapter 17, verse 12. Flip back to chapter 17, verse 12, because this is a glimpse into what he was praying on that night. We know he prayed, Father, not my will, but Your will.” He actually prayed a lot more than that too, and that's what we have in John 17. And in verse 12, he says, "While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, who is Judas the betrayer, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” And then he says this, if you jump down to verse 15, he says, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." Do you see what Jesus is praying about his disciples? He's saying, while I was with them, I kept them, I guarded them, except for Judas, because that's what the Word said. The other eleven, I kept them, and now that I'm going to go be with you, Father, I ask that you would keep them from the evil one. Yes, they may have abandoned him. He knew they would abandon him later on this night after he prays this. Yes, he knows they're going to go deny him, but ultimately, he doesn't want them to fall away. He prays to the Father, don't let Satan get them. I know Satan's after them. I know he wants to sift them like wheat. I know he wants to lead them to bail on the faith. Father, keep them.

See, this was the whole problem with the disciples’ thinking. When Jesus says you're all going to fall away, the disciples think I won't fall away, like they can keep themselves. See, the disciples they think they can keep themselves when the test comes because they think they're keeping themselves right now, and the truth is that if you're a follower of Jesus, you've never been keeping yourself. He's always been the one keeping you. Even the reason you haven't fallen away, even the reason you sit here believing in Jesus at this very hour, is not because of you. It's because Jesus is guarding you. He's keeping you. He's interceding on your behalf, praying to the Father to hold you in his hand and never let you go. Even the Spirit within you is groaning deeper than words, deeper than we even know, keeping us in the love of God, keeping us in his ways. No, don't think you keep yourself. No, Jesus is your keeper, and the reason, even when they're fleeing, he's like they're not going to fall away, because you're going to keep them from the evil one. What an amazing thought that Jesus can keep us in the faith.

Now, go with me to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, just to conclude this idea of how can you not fall away? How can you remain? How can you stay in Christ all the way to the end? Well, you’ve got to look to the one who remains. The one who's going to stay true is not you. The one who's the faithful and true witness is Jesus. The only way you don't fall away is you look to Jesus. You have to see him. Look at how it says it here in Hebrews, chapter 12. In the book of Hebrews, the idea of falling away is a major theme. Who's going to persevere? Who's going to endure to the end? And then who's going to fall away? Hebrews has a lot to say about it. It all starts in chapter 2, verse 1. You either pay closer attention to the gospel you've heard, or you're already drifting away from it. And it develops the theme from there. And the climax of this whole theme is Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, so many who have had faith in Jesus in the past, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” You want to run to the end? You want to make it to the end of your race? Well, you're going to have to admit your weaknesses and drop those weights. You're going to have to stop clinging to sin and ask God to lead you not into temptation. There's going to be a lot of heavy burdens. You're going to have to ask him to carry them because he cares for you. There's going to be a lot of temptations. You're going to have to ask God, don't lead me into them. If you want to make it to the end, there's a lot of running. But then none of that's the real issue. Look at what it says. Here's how you're going to run your race to the end. Verse 2, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of” what, everybody? Whose faith?

So, wait a minute, how did your faith get started? How is your faith going to get finished? See, if you think like Jesus is up here. He's the example we're following. We're down here. Here's us with our faith. If it's just you and your faith trying to follow Jesus, good luck with that. But see, here's Jesus. Here's our faith. He's the one that starts it. He's the one that finishes it. The one who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. It's not you. And then Jesus over here with you trying to follow him. It's not I, but it's Christ in me. I'm looking to Jesus because he's the one who started my faith. He's the one who will perfect and finish my faith? He's the one doing his work in me. He's the keeper, not me. And then it says, "You're looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, he despised the shame, and he's at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. You know what? Some of us need to learn how to think when we're going through hard times in life, and we're asking that old Christian question, “What would Jesus do?” Well, what Jesus would do is, he'd get arrested for me. He'd suffer many evil things for me. He'd be mistreated and mocked. He'd even be judged in my place. And if I keep looking to him, I'll be able to keep going, even if I grow weary. It says, even if I grow faint-hearted, it is not me, but it is Christ in me.

Let's get that down for our third dash: “To remain is not I, but Christ in me.” This life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Can I get an amen from anybody? He started your faith. He's going to finish your faith. And the way that you will remain in the faith is Jesus Christ in you. He's the one who remains. He's the one out of all the characters that you want to follow. Let me pray for you right now.

Father in heaven, we thank you that in the chaos of this scene, with the clubs and the swords, and Judas betraying him with a kiss, and Peter cutting off someone's ear, and a young man running away naked in the midst of all of that, there's Jesus doing what the Scriptures say. There's Jesus fulfilling your will. There's Jesus letting them arrest him so he can be numbered with us, those who have broken your law. Father, we gather here today in the name of Jesus, and we come to worship you. We come to say thank you so much for what Jesus did for us. Thank you that many of us are now counted as righteous because Jesus was counted as a transgressor. Thank you that we can come before you and pray to you today, because Jesus makes intercession for us. And God, I pray for all my brothers and sisters that when we think, how am I going to live today, how am I going to not fall away? I pray that we would all know the only way we're going to make it when our race is complete. Still, our lips will repeat. Yet not I, but Christ in me. There he is getting arrested for me. There he's going to go on trial for me. There he's going to die for me. Then he's going to rise for me. I didn't do anything the whole time. I didn't save myself, and I'm not going to keep myself. I can't even sanctify myself. I can't even do it today. Not even one good thing. God, please humble us, empty us of ourselves. Let us not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Let us not think that we stand. Oh, I won't fall away. Let us say today, it's not I, but it is Christ in me. And when people come to this church, don't let them see a bunch of Christians. Let them see a bunch of people full of Jesus Christ. Let the name of Jesus be set apart in our hearts and let his name be lifted high here in Huntington Beach. And let everybody know that the only way, the only truth, the only life is the one who remains, and his name is Jesus Christ, and he once got arrested so that he could pay for my sin. And the reason I'm going to live today is because of him. It's Christ in me. Let us worship Jesus now. We pray in his name, Amen.