Scripture Reading: John 18; 12:23-24
In this chapter we will consider the content of John 18. In order to understand this chapter, it would be helpful to compare it with the chapters in the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — that speak of the Lord in Gethsemane and of His arrest, trial, and judgment. If you make such a comparison, you will see that the synoptic Gospels emphasize aspects that are different from those emphasized in John 18. Only in John are we told that Judas, the one who betrayed Him, knew the place where the Lord Jesus would be (v. 2). In John 18 we also see that Judas brought a band of soldiers and deputies with weapons to seize the Lord and arrest Him (v. 3).
In chapter 18 we see that the Lord Jesus was bold. With boldness He went to the garden, and with boldness He met those who came to arrest Him. Verse 4 says, “Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, Whom do you seek?” When they answered that they were seeking Jesus the Nazarene, He said to them, “I am” (v. 5). Verse 6 says, “When therefore He said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground.”
I Am is the name of Jehovah. In verses 5, 6, and 8 this name is used three times. One reason this name is used here is that John’s record is to show us how Jehovah, the Triune God, works Himself into His chosen people. The One who was arrested was not merely a Nazarene; this One was the great I Am, the unlimited, infinite God. Hence, the One who was arrested was Jehovah God. With one who is merely a Nazarene, there is not the divine life. But the great I Am has the divine life. Therefore, Jesus is not merely a man; He is also I Am. According to 1:1, He was the Word, and the Word was God. What is the name of this One? His name is I Am; His name is Jehovah.
As we read John 18, we see that the emphasis of the record here is certainly different from that in the other Gospels. The synoptic Gospels reveal that Jesus was arrested as a man and then put on the cross to die for our sins in order to accomplish redemption for us. The Gospel of John reveals that the Lord Jesus is the great I Am.
Furthermore, according to John’s Gospel, the One who was arrested in the garden was the Lamb of God, but even more He was a grain of wheat (12:24). As a grain of wheat, a container of the divine life, the Lord was arrested and then sown into the earth through death in order that He might be multiplied and thereby be glorified.
The Lord Jesus was willing to be put to death in order that He might be glorified. He knew that under God’s hand His being arrested and His being put to death were the answer to His prayer in 17:1. In that verse He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” It was by His being put to death that the Lord would be glorified.
In order for this glorification to take place, the Lord went to the very spot where He would be arrested. Actually, the Lord was not arrested by the soldiers; He presented Himself to them. In order to avoid being arrested, it would not have been necessary for the Lord to call the angels to fight for Him. He simply had to say the words I Am. We have seen that when He said these words, the soldiers drew back and fell to the ground. Here the Lord was not threatening them; instead, He was comforting them. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Are you seeking Jesus the Nazarene? I Am. Have you come to arrest Jehovah? There is no need for you to arrest Me. I present Myself to you. Take Me to the place where I will be put to death.”
This understanding of the Lord’s action matches His word in 10:17 and 18 concerning Himself as the good Shepherd laying down His life for the sheep: “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.” Here we see that no one took the Lord’s life away from Him. Rather, He laid it down of His own accord and then, after a short period of time (three days according to the Jewish calendar), He took up His life again. Therefore, in this sense the Lord actually was not arrested and taken away; on the contrary, He gave Himself away and then, three days later, He took Himself back.
For what purpose did the Lord give Himself to those who betrayed Him, arrested Him, judged Him, and sent Him to be put to death? The Lord’s purpose in giving Himself up was that He would be multiplied. The Lord willingly went through the process of death so that He could be multiplied.
In order for the Lord to pass through the process of death, it was necessary for everything and everyone involved in this process to be prepared. Judas, Peter, the high priest, and Pilate all had a part in this process. Judas betrayed the Lord, and Peter, bold in the flesh to resist, first cut off the ear of a slave of the high priest and later denied the Lord. The Jewish high priest judged the Lord and rejected Him. After this rejection He was transferred by the Jewish religionists to Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate had no way to condemn the Lord, but he was forced by the people to do something. With Judas, Peter, the high priest, and Pilate we see certain steps that were a necessary preparation for the process of death through which the Lord Jesus, the great I Am, passed.
Not long before the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the Roman Empire adopted crucifixion as a method of executing criminals. No doubt, it was sovereign of God that the Roman Empire adopted this method of executing criminals before the Lord was tried and sentenced to death. In the Old Testament it was prophesied definitely that the Messiah was to be cut off, crucified. In John 12 the Lord Jesus also prophesied that He would be lifted up, that is, crucified. However, the Jewish way of executing criminals convicted of a capital offense was stoning. Therefore, in order for the prophecies concerning the Lord’s crucifixion to be fulfilled, it was necessary for Him to be transferred from the Jewish authorities to the authority of the Roman rulers.
Moreover, according to Roman law, the Jews were not allowed to execute criminals. Concerning this, John 18:31 says, “Pilate said then to them, You take Him and judge Him according to your law. The Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to kill anyone.” According to verse 32, this took place so that “the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was to die.” Therefore, the matter of executing the Lord Jesus was left to Pilate. The transfer of the Lord Jesus from the Jewish religionists to the Roman rulers led to the death of the cross.
When the Lord Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate actually did not judge Him. Instead, Pilate held a conversation with the Lord. In this conversation certain marvelous things were manifested. First, Jesus was manifested to be the King of the kingdom of God. The Jews had mocked the Lord Jesus by saying that He was the King. When Pilate heard of their mocking word, he questioned the Lord concerning His being a king. In 18:37 Pilate said to Him, “So then You are a king?” The Lord answered, “You say that I am a king.” Immediately before Pilate asked Him about being a king, the Lord had said to him, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My attendants would be struggling so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from here” (v. 36). The Gospel of John is the only Gospel that records this aspect of the conversation between Pilate and the Lord Jesus. The reason John’s Gospel includes this is that his Gospel reveals that the One who was about to be crucified is the great I Am and the King of the kingdom of God. The One who stood before Pilate was not merely Jesus the Nazarene. This One was Jehovah, the I Am. He was the King of the kingdom of God.
In the presence of Pilate the Lord Jesus was also manifested as a witness to the truth. He said to Pilate, “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I would testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (v. 37). To this, Pilate replied, “What is truth?” (v. 38a).
Concerning truth, or reality, we have seen that the entire universe may be compared to a shell and that the content of this shell is the Triune God. As created human beings, we also are shells, empty containers. We need God to be our content, to be our reality. The Triune God is the reality in the universe, and the Lord Jesus came to testify concerning this reality. This Gospel reveals that God is the truth, the reality, and the Spirit is the Spirit of reality. Every word that conveys the Triune God is also truth or reality. Truth, then, is the Divine Trinity as the content of the universe and of God’s chosen people.
The Lord Jesus indicated to Pilate that He came as the King of the kingdom of God and also came to testify to the truth. For the Lord to testify to the truth means that He testified that the Triune God is the real content of the universe.
Pilate did not understand, and there was no time for the Lord Jesus to tell him any more. Pilate abruptly ended the conversation by saying, “What is truth?”
As soon as Pilate ended his conversation with the Lord Jesus, he went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no fault in Him” (v. 38b). In the Lord’s trial before Pilate there was not actually any judgment. Instead, there was a manifestation of the Lord as the King of the kingdom of God and as the living Witness to the truth, the universal reality. Furthermore, He was proved to be without fault. He was perfect and was not wrong in anything. Nevertheless, as we will see in chapter 19, they put the Lord Jesus to death.
Chapter 18 is a record of the preparation of the great I Am to pass through the process of death for the purpose of multiplication and glorification. We have seen that the emphasis with respect to the Lord’s death in John’s Gospel is on multiplication rather than redemption. The Lord died so that He as the one grain might become many grains in resurrection. This multiplication makes it possible for the Father to have a house with many abodes, for the Son to have many brothers, for the vine to spread through its many branches, and for the new man with its many parts to be born. The first man, Adam, was created by God. But the second man was not created; rather, the second man was begotten, produced, through Christ’s death and resurrection. The result of Christ’s death and resurrection is multiplication, and this multiplication is the Lord’s glorification.
When the Lord Jesus was speaking concerning Himself as the true vine, He said to His disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:5). Concerning this fruit-bearing, the Lord went on to say, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My disciples” (v. 8). Here we see that when the branches of the vine bear fruit, the Father is glorified.
The principle is the same with the grain of wheat in 12:24. The one grain fell into the ground and died and then grew up to become many grains. This multiplication of the one grain is the glorification of that grain. In 12:23 and 24 we see the glorification of the Son. The Son’s glorification issues in the Father’s glorification because the Father is glorified in the Son’s glorification. Now we need to see that this glorification is a matter of multiplication, and this multiplication has not ceased.
The multiplication is continuing through the fruit-bearing of the many branches of the vine. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. These branches are actually the many grains produced by the Lord as the one grain. At first, the Lord Jesus was the only grain. Then He was multiplied through death and resurrection to produce many grains. Now we, those who believe in Christ, are the many grains and also the many branches of the vine. As branches, we are destined to bear fruit. This fruit-bearing is also multiplication, and this multiplication is the continuation of the Lord’s glorification.
In the synoptic Gospels the Lord commanded the disciples to go forth and preach the gospel to disciple the nations. In Matthew 28:19 He said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations”; in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation”; and in Luke 24:47 He said that “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.” However, in the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus did not charge us to go forth to preach the gospel in order to win souls. What we have in this Gospel is not gospel preaching but fruit-bearing.
Many in the Lord’s recovery are expecting to see more increase. In the divine economy the increase does not come mainly from gospel preaching. Rather, the real increase comes as the result, the issue, of death. As we have pointed out, in chapter 12 there was a golden opportunity for the Lord to be exalted and to have a large crowd following Him. That is the kind of increase valued by many Christians today. Certain preachers enjoy drawing a crowd and having a big following. But according to John 12, to have a crowd follow Him was not the Lord’s way to have His increase. His way was to be multiplied through death. This applies also to us. We may think that the increase will come through gospel preaching. Although I am certainly for the preaching of the gospel, I must tell you that the real increase comes through death. If we want there to be an increase in the Lord’s recovery, we need to die. For the increase we need to be put to death.
Because we are not willing to die, God in His sovereignty prepares everyone and everything necessary to bring us into death. He may prepare a “Judas” to betray you and a good-hearted “Peter,” who may think that he is helping you by defending you. We know that Peter only caused trouble for the Lord Jesus by cutting off the ear of the slave of the high priest. One of the other Gospels records the fact that it was necessary for the Lord to heal the slave’s ear. The “Peters” who think that they are helping us may actually be used to bring us into death. God has a way to do this.
Some of us had the concept that if we loved the Lord and took His way in the recovery, everything related to us would be flourishing. We expected to have a good wife or husband and children who were obedient and would eventually become successful in their professions. However, many of us can testify that the more we love the Lord and take His way, the more troubles we have. The Lord may prepare someone to betray us and others, like the high priest, to reject us. There may even be a “Pilate” who will deliver us to those who intend to crucify us. All these things are prepared by God and make it possible for us to go through the process of death. Therefore, instead of a good environment, the situation may be the exact opposite of what we expected.
The reason for this is that everything works together to help us go through the death process. According to Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good. But they work together according to God’s understanding of matters, not according to our own understanding. When we quote Romans 8:28, we should not forget the context of this chapter. This chapter speaks of suffering upon suffering. Nevertheless, God causes all things to work together for good in that we are prepared to pass through the process of death.
Apparently, after the Lord Jesus came to the garden, nothing was good. Actually, everything was good, because everything was a preparation for the death process. Within a short period of time after coming to the garden, He entered into that process. Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s resistance, the high priest’s rejection, and Pilate’s judgment were all helpful in this regard. All these things contributed to the process by which the Lord Jesus entered into death. But He was ready for this, for He was ready to be sown as a grain of wheat so that through death and resurrection He might be multiplied.
My burden in these chapters on John 18 is to point out that according to the emphasis in the Gospel of John, the Lord’s death was mainly for multiplication. Now this multiplication should continue with us. As the many grains produced by the one grain, we are the branches of the vine to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father. Our fruit-bearing is the continuation of the multiplication, of the divine glorification. This fruit-bearing cannot be prevailing unless we are willing to pass through the death process.
In nature we see that in order to bear fruit many kinds of trees must pass through the “winter” of death. With us, if there is no death, there will be no fruit-bearing. First there must be death, and then resurrection will follow. In resurrection we have fruit-bearing.
The only way for the Lord to have His increase today is for us to be willing, as He was, to experience all the preparations for the death process. We should thank the Lord that with us also there is the necessary preparation. There may be a Judas, a Peter, religion’s opposition and rejection, and a trial before the rulers. All these preparations form a process of death for us to go through. If we go through this process, the Lord’s multiplication, His glorification, will continue. This multiplication, this glorification, this increase, will be repeated again and again through the process of death. This is the Lord’s death for reproduction, for multiplication, which is His glorification.
