John 18:1-18 WENT BACKWARD AND FELL
"When Jesus had spoken these words," must refer to the prayer the Lord Jesus Christ made for His own people. In the prayer He made to the Father about God's work for them, He also identified characteristics of His disciples that describe those who have eternal life. They know the Father and the Son. It is not only the words they say that show the reality of faith but, more importantly, the actions of life that reveal the characteristics of the divine nature. The Lord Jesus made earnest intercession on their behalf as He asked the Father to keep them, sanctify them and unite them. His desire was that they would be with Him and they also would share His glory. Not only would His love be in them but that He would be in them - "Christ in you the hope of glory." Whether they understood much of what Jesus prayed or not, is not told us, but we know what He prayed and we know what those words mean to us now. How blessed and wonderful it is to be the objects of such holy intercession.
At the beginning of Jesus' ministry over three years previous to the events recorded here, Jesus told them of this sign of His deity. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Now the time had come for a testing time for His disciples. As the band of men and soldiers came led by Judas, Jesus woke the sleeping disciples and met these men outside the garden and in His majesty declared openly His deity - "I AM." Wherever God reveals Himself in power and authority, men are helpless before Him. On this occasion those two words moved them to go backward and fall down before Him. God at times allows events and circumstances to happen in which helpless men can only acknowledge, "This is an act of God."
Not only in majesty and authority did the Lord Jesus Christ identify Himself, but in meekness, power under control, He submitted Himself to feeble men and allowed them to bind Him. He interceded on behalf of His own, when He made sure the disciples were free to go. Peter filled with zeal, made a hesitant and fearful attempt to defend Jesus. Weak courage without knowledge has no real value in the work of God. We need to know the mind and will of God before we try to take His work into our own hands. In mercy and meekness the Lord Jesus restored the damage caused by Peter's impetuous act of cutting off a man's ear. Aiming at a man's head instead of his heart is not an effective way of doing God's work.
When our ambition for God takes control of our service for Him instead of our responsibility, then we are in danger of acting in the energy of our flesh. To be guided in our efforts to serve God means we must be willing to wait for His time even though waiting is very hard to do. Not only may we be acting only in the weakness of our fleshly nature, but we may be acting contrary to the purposes of God. We can make more damage at the end of a matter and it is only God who in mercy can act to recover what we have lost and hindered. It is important that we know His word and act on that lest we be found going contrary to God.
Deceit as seen in Judas' actions has the devil himself as its source. He is a deceiver and the father of lies. The betrayer who had kissed Jesus was among those who went backward and fell. His last impression of the Lord Jesus Christ in His majesty, would be from the prostrate position of one bowed before the Savior - "That every knee should bow ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Judas betrayed the "innocent blood" of the Savior and the last words he heard from the Savior were, "I AM." How very dark and dismal is the state of one who has rejected and betrayed the Savior. "Deeper down than Tyre and Sidon, shall the Christ-rejecter go."
When the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, there was no question as to what that would cost. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what was ahead of Him and had no intention of avoiding it. There would be suffering, loneliness, rejection and death in that "cup" when He would put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The Father had given Him this work and He took it willingly. It is always "holy ground" when we see divine Persons subject to one another. True, Jesus was going to suffer as a man for us, but He was still the great "I AM." He never for a moment gave up His divine nature to become the "I WAS." Yet as the Son, He was obedient to His Father. As a man, He was obedient to His God. As the Lamb of God, He was the one acceptable sacrifice for sin and he did not seek any way to avoid that purpose.
There were two trials Jesus would have to go through: one was religious and the other political. The religious trial by the Jewish leaders was a perversion of their own laws and yet they were determined to pursue that as far as they could. It was there Peter and John came to see what would happen. John was known and went into the palace first while Peter was outside. Whether we want to or not, true believers cannot really blend in very long with the world and the people of the world. Light and dark don't mix. The moral and spiritual differences cannot be hidden. They are bound to show. The problem comes when we try to find our satisfaction and comfort in the same place unbelievers go.
The cords that bound the Savior, Peter must have known could not keep Jesus captive. He knew who Jesus was and what he had power to do. He probably expected some miraculous act of deliverance to take place and wanted to see it. When the pressure came on him to identify himself, he was afraid because Jesus was still bound. There are costs to discipleship that we may not be aware of until we are in very adverse situations. That is when we are tested as to the degree of our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in those times the reality of our faith in Christ is put to the test.