Peter's Denial

[0:00] Mark 14, if you notice in the bulletin, we're actually reading two different passages. Two different passages in order to follow one story.

[0:12] We're looking at Peter this morning. And so we're going to start in verse 26. So this is the last night of Jesus' life.

[0:23] The Last Supper has just happened. And two weeks ago we read about Gethsemane. But this scene that we're about to read about takes place between the Last Supper and Gethsemane.

[0:36] And then we're going to fast forward just a few moments or hours to what happens when Peter's in the courtyard as Jesus is first arrested and is being tried.

[0:48] So Mark 14, 26 to 31. And when they had sung a hymn, that is Jesus and the disciples, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

[1:01] And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.

[1:13] Peter said to him, Even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

[1:27] But he, Peter, said emphatically, If I must die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said the same. And then looking down at verse 66.

[1:37] And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. And seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with the Nazarene Jesus.

[1:53] But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you mean. And he went out into the gateway, and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began to say to the bystanders, this man is one of them.

[2:08] But again, he denied it. And after a little while, the bystanders again said to Peter, Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean. But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak.

[2:26] And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

[2:39] And Peter broke down and wept. Amen. This is God's Word. Do you have family secrets?

[2:53] Are there secrets in your family? There are secrets in my family. And one thing as you learn as you grow older is that there were probably secrets that you didn't know about because no one talked about.

[3:07] And then as you get older, someone drops a clue on you or they bring it up and you never heard the story before. And the reason families keep secrets, partly, is because they don't want to embarrass anybody.

[3:19] They don't want to embarrass the person that the secret is about. Or maybe the better reason is they don't want to embarrass the family. There are some things about our families that if other people knew, well, we don't want them to know because we don't want to think what other people would think about us if they knew our family secret.

[3:36] And I think one reason why this passage is surprising is because Peter's denial of Jesus could easily have been kept a family secret. either to protect Peter, because he went on to become a leader in the church.

[3:51] And people could have easily said, people make mistakes. We've got to bury this. People don't need to know what Peter did. This is embarrassing. Or maybe a better reason to keep it a secret is because it's embarrassing to the church.

[4:05] I mean, what kind of religion has a leader like Peter who denied the founder of the religion? Peter did that. It's not a good look if you were a PR person.

[4:17] And you could say one reason why one piece of evidence for the truth of the Bible is that it never tries to hide these things. If I were a PR person and I was writing the Bible, I would not include what Peter did because it's embarrassing.

[4:33] It doesn't make the church look good. But not only is this story in the Gospels, it's in every single Gospel. And nowhere is it more surprising than in the book of Mark because if you know, there's a great tradition going back all the way to the early church that says that Mark's main eyewitness, you know, Mark is drawing on eyewitnesses to write his Gospel.

[4:58] And most people believe that his main eyewitness was Peter himself. And if that's true, that means Peter is telling this story and he's not keeping it a secret. And I think the reason why is because Peter's denial of Jesus, if you see it in the context of the whole New Testament, his denial of Jesus doesn't destroy the Christian message.

[5:20] It actually illuminates it. And that's what we're going to see this morning is how Peter's denial actually illuminates the Gospel. And we're going to do that by asking this really simple question that all of us have to answer at some point in life, which is what do you do when you fall?

[5:38] When you fall, what do you do? And that's inevitable because Jesus is the only person who never fell. So all of us have to have an answer to that question. When you fall, what do you do?

[5:48] Where do you go? Where do you turn to? And we're going to see how Peter's testimony answers that question this morning. But first, before we do that, you have to go back a little bit because I want to talk a little bit about the fall because there's a lesson in the fall itself with Peter, which is that a sure sign that you're falling into danger is thinking that you can't fall into danger.

[6:10] A sure sign that you're falling into danger is thinking that you can't. And if you think about Peter, I mean, when you know the whole story, it's amazing. I mean, when I say amazing, I mean unbelievable how Peter could be so confident.

[6:22] I mean, you see there in verse 29 and in verse 31, Peter says things like, even though they all fall away, I will not. And in verse 31, he says, if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

[6:36] Peter, I think Peter literally did not think that he could fall. At least not like this. Maybe he would say, sure, I could make mistakes, but I would never deny Jesus.

[6:48] And he does. But the question is, what's wrong with that kind of confidence? What's wrong with saying, I'll never deny you, Jesus? Is that a sin in and of itself? And I think if you look closely at how Peter lives out these moments, you see that there's something wrong with the way that Peter understands himself.

[7:08] And the problem you see, I think you get a hint in verse 38, which is not in our passage. It's in the Garden of Gethsemane, but it's in the garden. Remember in the garden, Jesus looks at Peter and he says, Peter, pray that you might not fall into temptation.

[7:24] And I think that's a really important line because what Jesus is telling Peter is, Jesus assumes that for Peter to withstand the temptation that's in front of him, he's going to need God's help.

[7:39] He can't do it on his own. But when you hear Peter talk about the fact that he's not going to let Jesus down, Peter doesn't say, I'm trusting in God.

[7:49] He's totally relying on himself. And when Jesus says, pray that you might not fall into temptation, Peter doesn't pray. He doesn't lean on God at all. And what you see, the picture you get of Peter is a man who is relying totally on his own strength.

[8:05] Peter did not believe he needed God in order to be faithful to God. And so he's missing this key truth when we think about the danger of falling.

[8:17] And here's the truth for us. Part of the Christian life means really believing that you are not capable in your own strength of fighting the temptations that this world is going to throw at you.

[8:33] You are not strong enough in your own strength of fighting the temptations. And when we get to the place in life where we feel invincible, where we think, I could never fall to a sin like that, it's a warning sign because Jesus is always reminding his disciples, pray that you might not enter into temptation.

[8:53] And I've been trying to think about how to visualize this in life because a lot of this is spiritual and you can't really see it. But I was thinking about how when I was in college, I had a terrible car accident, but I was wearing a seatbelt.

[9:09] And I drove that same road over and over and over again. It was to my grandmother's house all the time. I was very comfortable on that road. And it could have easily gotten to the point where I said, I feel so confident driving down this road that I don't need a seatbelt anymore because I trust myself.

[9:27] But I wore the seatbelt on that day. And after the wreck, you know, when I took my shirt off to see the damage, there was a bruise in the shape of my seatbelt. That was how forceful I had gone forward.

[9:38] And God only knows what would have happened if I had not been wearing that seatbelt. And I think that's what Peter is missing. He's missing the idea that the Holy Spirit is actually, can and should protect him.

[9:53] And he's leaning on his own strength to keep himself safe and not relying on the Holy Spirit. I think an easy way to describe what Peter's missing here is what you might call gospel humility.

[10:04] gospel humility is this idea that as you grow in grace, you know, you are becoming more and more, more and more sanctified, more and more like Christ.

[10:18] But the irony is, and a real saint will know this is true, that the more like Christ you become, actually the more aware of your own sins you are too.

[10:30] So that, you know, the more like Christ you become, the more dependent on God you are, which is ironic because some people think of Christian life like, you know, God helps you at the beginning and then he kind of sends you off on your own and you're strong enough and you don't need the Holy Spirit like you used to.

[10:47] And that's not how the gospel actually is. Gospel humility says, the more I grow in my faith, the more I realize how dependent on God I am.

[10:59] So practically, what is that? What do you do with this? Well, you know, it's one thing to believe, to say, I need God to help me when I am tempted and I'm not going to trust in my own strength.

[11:13] But how do you do it practically? And I think one really practical answer is to listen to what Jesus said. Jesus, remember how he taught his disciples to pray in the Lord's Prayer? One of the things he says is, lead us not into temptation.

[11:26] And that prayer is not just an incantation that you just say and it makes things better. There's content to that prayer. And part of the prayer is to say, Lord, if you are not helping me resist temptation, I cannot resist temptation.

[11:45] And, you know, practically, you could sit down right now and you could say to yourself, what temptations am I most likely to face this week? The temptation to gossip?

[11:57] The temptation to get really angry at someone? The temptation to lust? The temptation for jealousy? If you know that you have those kinds of propensities, that's a big word, right?

[12:09] If you know that you've got those kinds of propensities, all the more reason to go to God and say, even if I feel confident in myself, I know that I shouldn't feel confident in myself.

[12:21] And I need, God, I need you to keep me from temptation and to keep me from the temptations that I'm not even expecting. Because Peter thought, that's not a temptation I need to worry about.

[12:32] I'm not worried about that one. And when you make that a habit, what are you doing? You're building gospel humility into your life. Okay? But the main question I want to get to this morning, what do you do when you fall?

[12:46] You know, there's ways that you can stop the fall before it happens. But what happens when you fall and you say, I never would have thought this would have happened to me, but now I'm here. What do I do? And I think when you look at Peter's life, you can't see the answer in this passage, but you can see in Peter's life how this passage, the gospel is illuminated in this passage.

[13:09] And I want to point to two examples of what Peter did. The first thing Peter did was he heard Jesus. You know, in the passage, the last thing we see about Peter is that he was filled with great grief.

[13:24] And, you know, any person who commits sin should grieve over their sin. It doesn't have to be with tears, but they should look at themselves and say, I truly regret what I did.

[13:35] But grief alone, grief alone will not bring you to Jesus. Jesus. Because who else grieved in these few hours? Judas grieved.

[13:46] Judas betrayed Jesus and he felt terrible after it, so terrible, that he ended his own life. And that did not bring him closer to Jesus. So there's got to be, what did Peter do that Judas didn't?

[13:58] And the first thing he did was he heard Jesus. You know, after this passage, Peter doesn't reappear in the gospel of Mark, but his name comes up one time right at the very end of the gospel of Mark.

[14:13] And it's so simple that you could read by it and think nothing of it, but it's the moment when Jesus has been resurrected and the women are at the tomb and there's an angel that meets them there.

[14:25] And the angel gives them all kinds of instructions, but then the angel looks at the women and says this, go and tell the disciples and Peter.

[14:36] The angel says, go and tell the disciples and Peter that he, Jesus, is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you.

[14:51] Think about what's going on here. The women at the tomb, they don't realize it, but these women are, by definition, the very first evangelists of Jesus Christ because they're the ones who first received the news that Jesus has risen.

[15:07] And who does Jesus tell the angel to send these women to to bring the gospel for the first time? The disciples. The very people who just three days before had run away from Jesus and who had abandoned him.

[15:22] And I have to think that Jesus said the disciples and Peter by name. He said Peter's name by name because I have to imagine that when Peter heard that Jesus was getting the disciples back together, he would have thought to himself, surely he can't mean me.

[15:40] Surely Jesus can't be talking about me. Because it's shocking. You know, if your friend absolutely betrayed you, three days later, would you call that friend back to yourself and welcome him with open arms?

[15:54] It's shocking. But, at the same time, it's not a surprise. And the reason it's not a surprise is because we read this in the passage this morning.

[16:06] Before Jesus died, he told them this was going to happen. He said, all of you will flee and run away from me. But then in verse 27, he says, but I will go before you to Galilee.

[16:20] Jesus knew his disciples would abandon him because it was prophesied. And yet, he goes to the cross and he tells them to meet him after the resurrection.

[16:32] That's beautiful, right? They abandon him for a time, but he never abandons them. And you remember I said earlier, Peter's denial doesn't destroy the gospel.

[16:43] It illuminates it. And it's because Peter's life in these few hours show who the gospel is for. It's for people like Peter.

[16:55] It's for people who have fallen. The people who get to a point in their lives where they say, I cannot believe that I did that. I never thought I would be that kind of person.

[17:06] The gospel wasn't for the person that Peter thought that he was. The gospel wasn't for the Peter who would always stand by Jesus because that Peter doesn't exist.

[17:18] The gospel was always for the Peter who was a failure. And when Jesus calls Peter to come and see him, he's calling Peter who is a failure. And there's a lot we can say about that, but just, have you ever thought about this?

[17:35] God can see the future. He knows what's going to happen. And if that's true, and you are a Christian, then what that must mean is God sent his son to the cross knowing every sin you have ever committed and will ever commit.

[17:52] And he sent his son to the cross knowing all that. So there's nothing that you can do. We can disappoint God with the choices that we make, but we can't surprise him.

[18:04] And he's already chosen to love us. And if he's disappointed, he's disappointed like the kind of father who, in his disappointment, calls that child back to himself and won't let him go until that child is restored to himself.

[18:19] Now, that's the gospel, but practically what does this mean for when we fall? What do we do when we fall? Here's one answer. One of the temptations when any of us fall is in our grief, you know, we look at what we've done, we're embarrassed, we're ashamed.

[18:37] In our grief, we run away from God. And that is human nature 101. Adam and Eve did it in the Garden of Eden. Judas did it and he never came back.

[18:50] And, you know, sometimes it can feel like a righteous choice, actually, because you say to yourself, I am so embarrassed about what I've done and I feel so bad that I need some time away from God to get myself right so that I can get myself into a place where I can go back to God.

[19:07] And that can feel like the righteous thing to do. But what it actually is is that's a lack of faith. Because what that says is my sin right now is too big for God to be able to deal with and I need to whittle it down a little bit.

[19:22] Make it something that he can handle before I bring it back to him. What does Jesus tell Peter? He says, he tells Peter, come and see me.

[19:33] Come and see me in Galilee. That's all he tells Peter is turn back to me. And, you know, when we fall, the next right thing is always to listen to Jesus because Jesus is always there saying, if you will turn to me, I can restore you.

[19:50] We can fix this. I can fix this. So when we fall, even if you have fallen for years, hear Jesus calling you to the next right thing, which is just to hear him, hear what he has to say in the gospel.

[20:04] But, if you stop there, then you haven't heard the full gospel because that's not where the gospel ends and it's not where Peter's story ends.

[20:16] And, the second thing, the second thing to do when we stumble is we've got to, you've got to hear Jesus, but we've also got to give the gospel room to grow in our lives because that's the only way we can truly change.

[20:31] On Wednesday nights, we've been doing a series at our house. You're all invited to come. But the series has been on gospel conversations about how you share your faith.

[20:42] And so the first week that we were together, we looked at a passage, famous passage from 1 Peter, where Peter is writing a letter to Christians and he's talking about persecution and he's encouraging the church in persecution.

[20:56] And here's one of the things that he says. He says, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

[21:15] For it is better to suffer for doing good than if that should be God's will than for doing evil. Now, you know, those are fancy words coming from Peter.

[21:28] Peter here in 1 Peter is saying, you know, never be afraid to share your faith. Always be ready and willing to give up. Reason for the hope that's in you. And this is the same Peter who when a servant girl comes up to him the night that Jesus is betrayed, a servant girl comes up to him and says, don't you know Jesus?

[21:47] Peter calls down, curses on himself to say, you know, cursed be me if I have ever met this man before. And, you know, bold words, but, you know, Peter, all of these storylines put together serve to illuminate the gospel.

[22:03] And this isn't about how great Peter is. It's about saying, look at what the gospel can do. The gospel can take a man who denied his, the man that he followed for three, the God that he followed for three years when a servant girl asked him about it.

[22:20] And yet, just a couple years later, he can tell the whole church saying, never be afraid to share the gospel. Never be afraid of persecution and death because what is death compared to the gospel of Jesus Christ?

[22:32] What has happened? That's the question. How does a man change like that? And the answer is, the answer has to be, Peter gave the gospel room to grow in his life.

[22:44] You know, when people want to change, there's all kinds of answers they have. You need to get your self-discipline together. You need to learn more. So you can be educated about the right things to do.

[22:56] And all those things are true. There's all kinds of ways to make practical changes in our lives. But when you read 1 Peter, the picture you get is not of a man who has mastered self-discipline.

[23:08] The picture you get is of a man who has become so overwhelmed by the hope of the gospel that suddenly the things that used to make him afraid don't make him afraid anymore because the gospel has literally crowded that fear out.

[23:23] You know, what was wrong with Peter in that moment when he betrayed Jesus? He was so afraid of death that escaping death was better than denying Jesus. Or he would rather escape death and deny Jesus than vice versa.

[23:38] And now he's at the point in his life, towards the end of his life, where he says, death is nothing to me compared to what I have in Jesus Christ. So what's the point here?

[23:52] The gospel is never just you can be forgiven. It is never less than that. The gospel says you can be forgiven and when you follow after Jesus, when you give the gospel room to grow in your hearts, Jesus is going to work on you and work on you and work on you until you are a changed person, until you're the kind of person who at one point in your life could deny Jesus in the most silly of circumstances and in the next season of your life, you could face death itself and be totally unafraid because you love the gospel so much.

[24:29] But the way you do that is you give the gospel room to grow in your life. And we do that, we want to be a church where you can come here and as you sit under the teaching, as we live in community with one another, we're constantly asking ourselves, what does the gospel have to do with this?

[24:49] I'm facing this temptation, what does the gospel say to that? Or this is a challenge in my life, what does the gospel say to that? And as we continue to do that year by year and week by week, the gospel begins to take root in each of our lives so that we become changed people.

[25:05] And it happens slowly, but it happens. We're forgiven in an instant, but we change for the rest of our lives. And that's the promise is that God will make us perfect. Let me close with this.

[25:21] This week I was reading, on my vacation, I was reading a book about shepherding, not like church shepherding, but about real shepherding. And I found this book by a British guy who just wrote a memoir about what it was like to be a shepherd.

[25:36] And one of the points that he makes is a fairly obvious point, but it's that you always judge a shepherd by the quality of his sheep. You always judge a shepherd by the quality of his sheep.

[25:49] And when you hear that, at first you may think in terms of, are you taking care of the sheep? Is the sheep well-fed? Is it groomed? But what he was really talking about is how your goal is to have perfect sheep.

[26:02] sheep. And the way that you get perfect sheep is not by fixing the sheep that you have, it's by bringing in better sheep from outside of the flock and breeding them in. So you're breeding out all the imperfections.

[26:14] But the whole point is you're never satisfied with the sheep that you have, so you've got to keep bringing in other ones to fix the ones you've got. And I think Jesus is equally committed, he is the shepherd, he's equally committed to having perfect sheep, and he will have perfect sheep.

[26:30] But the way that he does it is not by saying we've got to bring in some sheep from outside to fix these that we've got. He takes the sheep that he has, and he begins to work on them and work on them and work on them, and he transforms the one that he has so that they were imperfect, and yet he makes them perfect, something that a human shepherd can never do with his own sheep.

[26:54] And so that's the hope this morning, is do you believe, do you believe that when you stumble that Jesus is speaking to you and that he can forgive you, but also do you believe that he actually has the power, if you give the gospel room in your life to grow, that he has the power to make you, to transform you, to make you into someone that you never thought you had the potential to be, not because of your own strength, but because of the power of the gospel.

[27:24] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for the gospel. We thank you that you've given us examples like Peter, who show us that though we may fall far, if we listen to your voice, we can never fall out of your hands.

[27:39] In your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen.