John 18

Link: http://www.esvbible.org/John+18/

After Jesus finished His prayer from the last chapter, He goes across the way, and John says that Judas knew the place. Jesus knows His duty, loves us so much, and is so prepared to face what He must do that He goes to a place where He knows the traitor will find Him. When the troops come to arrest Jesus, they have weapons in case they feel they have to take Him by force; however, He greets them very calmly. When they say that they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, He tells them that He is the one they are looking for, and fell backward. This implies that they did not fall in worship, since that would have caused them to fall forward, but they fell backwards as if they were afraid of His power. When the crowd again says that they are looking for Jesus, He tells them that they have found Him, and that they should let His disciples go since the crowd was not looking for them. Peter quickly pulls out his sword and ends up cutting off one of the guardsmen's ear. Jesus tells Peter to put away his sword. Then, the crowd took Jesus, tied Him up and carried Him off to Annas, the father-in-law of the chief priest who had ordered the guards to arrest Jesus.

Next, John talks about how he (not by name) and Peter were the only tow disciples who followed Jesus to the chief priests. While they were there, Peter was warming himself by the fire with some guards when a woman asks him if he is one of Jesus' disciples, and he says that he is not. This is one of the three times Peter denies Jesus that Jesus had earlier predicted.

Jesus is questioned by Annas, and He tells the chief priest that He has spoken everything in public and synagogues for all to hear; He was not building up anything secretive. He tells them that they should find those who heard Him because they know what He said, and they believe. A guard near by grows angry by this answer and slaps Jesus. Jesus asks what it is that He's done wrong. The chief priest asked Him a question and He spoke the truth. But Annas, not wanting to deal with this situation, hands Jesus, still bound, off to Caiaphas.

 While Peter continues to warm himself by the fire, some of the guards ask him if he is one of Jesus' followers, and Peter denies it twice more, and right after the last denial, he hears the rooster. Jesus' prediction came true. Peter denied Jesus tree times before the rooster crowed.

The Jews, still finding Jesus guilty, take Him to Pilate, the governor of the area, because they could not execute anyone since it was Passover. Pilate asks what they are accusing Jesus of, but they only say that if He wasn't guilty, they wouldn't hand Him over. They have no real reason to have Jesus killed because He is sinless, but they want to kill Him, so they hand Him over to Pilate to try Him anyways. By doing so, both the Jews and the gentiles will be responsible for Jesus' death. God didn't want just one group to be responsible, so He made all people responsible. Pilate takes Jesus into the palace and questions Him. When he is finished, Pilate takes Jesus back outside and says he's found nothing wrong with Him. Pilate, however, is a coward and doesn't want to upset the Jews, so he tells them that because it's Passover, he will release to them one of their prisoners, and the crowd tells him to keep Jesus and free a political prisoner named Barbarous.