Well, good morning.
It's good to be with you all.
How are you?
No, really.
How are you?
I wish you were here to be able to give me feedback, but it's more of a loaded question
these days, isn't it?
I hear answers.
I'm surviving, managing, learning new routines, new ways of living, trying to figure out for
me how to clean, how to schedule activities for my kids, what to feed them for lunch now
that school lunches are no longer taken care of.
Lots of little details and new things that I'm managing.
But more than that, we're also facing greater challenges, are we not?
Some of us feel isolated.
Some of us are sick, and not even with the virus, but facing other illnesses.
And we're afraid.
Some of us are facing financial strain, anxiety about our jobs.
The circumstances that we are in could be called a crucible.
If you've never seen a crucible, it's actually a ceramic cup.
It's about this big.
And what it is, is it's something that's meant to hold a precious metal, particularly something
like gold, that would then be heated up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The crucible holds it, and the heat brings pressure to bear on the metal with the purpose of purifying
it by revealing the impurities and then burning them away.
And when the heat is turned up, when the pressure is on us, how are you doing?
What do you see in your own responses in the last week or two to all these challenges?
And more pointedly, how have you engaged or not engaged in your spiritual life these days?
Are you running to God?
Or do you find yourself abandoning God in the midst of a crisis?
It is this that our passage turns us to today.
We are continuing in our series in the book of Luke.
We're going to be in Luke chapter 22.
We are coming near to the very end of his life.
As Luke narrates the story, he is ramping up towards the crucifixion and the resurrection.
Last week, Pastor Nick reminded us and taught us from Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,
saying, not my will, but thine be done, and his betrayal and arrest.
And this week, the camera shift shifts from Jesus to the Apostle Peter
and how Peter will respond to the crucible of his moment.
So, let's look at Luke chapter 22, starting in verse 54.
Let's read this together.
Then they seized him, that would be Jesus,
they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house.
And Peter was following at a distance.
And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together,
Peter sat down among them.
Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said,
this man also was with him.
But he denied it, saying, woman, I do not know him.
And a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them.
But Peter said, man, I am not.
And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying,
certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.
But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about.
And immediately, while he was speaking, the cock crowed.
And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.
And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said of him, before the cock crows today,
you will deny me three times.
And he went out and wept bitterly.
Let's pray together.
Lord, we thank you for your word and how it is a comfort and a challenge to our lives.
The way that it helps to redirect our attention.
Lord, not only the thoughts of our minds, but the things that we love and the ways that we act.
We pray this morning that you would be with us and help us.
Lord, we pray that your word would speak to our hearts this morning.
That your spirit, Lord, would be at work in us.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
How do we respond in the crucible?
We're going to look at this passage and look at it in three parts.
We're going to look at Peter's story.
We'll look at our story.
And then we're going to look at how Jesus meets us in the crucible of crisis.
So first, let's look at Peter's story.
It's a fairly straightforward one.
There's not a lot of confusion here about what happens.
Jesus has been arrested.
He's led astray into the high priest's house.
The house would probably be a typical house in that day.
It would have an outer courtyard and a gate that would come in.
And there would be a courtyard outside of the buildings.
And in that outside, there would be a place for crowds to gather, for visitors to gather.
And because it was night, they would have had a fire lit in that area.
And as Jesus is brought in and through, we see the apostle Peter following at a distance.
It may be that he was doing this bravely.
For he alone, it seems, of the disciples, continued to follow Jesus rather than fleeing when he was arrested.
And yet he did it from a distance.
He was afraid, uncertain about how much to identify with Jesus and how close to get to him.
And so in the house, he sits down with the other people around this fire.
And one of the women sitting there, one of the women sitting there looks at him and says,
Aren't you with that guy they just arrested?
Peter's response is strong.
I do not know him, woman.
He interjects that woman in there to emphasize, I don't know him.
He abandons any association with Jesus in that moment.
And another man right afterward says,
Well, no, aren't you one of them?
Aren't you a part of that group that was with that man?
And again, man, I do not know what you're talking about.
He abandons association with Jesus' followers as well.
And then an hour later, and as we put all the gospel stories together,
it seems that this had now progressed through the night,
and we're coming towards dawn this hour later.
Maybe Peter had hoped that they'd forgotten those comments.
Maybe they thought he could slip in there unknown.
But he'd also had time to think for an hour about the fact that he just disassociated himself
with Jesus and abandoned him.
And another man comes, and he looks at him.
And in the text it says, another certain man.
He looked at him, and he insisted,
No, you are one of those.
You were with him.
For you're a Galilean.
From the region up in the north where Jesus came from
and where his disciples had come from.
You are with him, aren't you?
And Peter pulls the greatest denial that we have all done at some time.
When someone has said something to us and called us out,
and we don't want to admit to it.
Man, you are crazy.
I don't know what you're talking about.
The greatest defense from a guilty heart.
Peter abandons Jesus in that moment.
He's afraid.
That fear is like the fire.
The fire of the crucible that burns, reveals his impurities, and shows his weakness.
Do you remember what Peter had said?
We read this just a few weeks ago.
You can look at it in your Bible, verse 33 of chapter 22.
Peter said to Jesus,
Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.
Jesus had said this trial would come.
He said he would pray for Peter.
And Peter said,
You don't need to pray for me, Jesus.
I've got this.
I'm already with you.
But here's his chance
to show his true loyalty.
And he fails.
Miserably.
Three times.
With time to think about it, even.
He denies Jesus by distancing himself.
I don't know him.
I don't know them.
I'm not one of them.
I don't know what you're talking about.
The crisis revealed Peter
not to be who he hoped he would be,
but to be who he really was.
So that's Peter's story.
And it's a tragic one.
And it's a sobering one.
What about us?
How are we responding to the crisis of our day?
The heat is being turned up in our crucible, is it not?
And are we running to God,
or are we abandoning him?
Look, we face something that's been not faced
in this whole generation, maybe in a century.
There's a real danger what's going on with us.
There's a real danger of getting a virus.
There's a real fear of dying.
There's a real fear,
not only for ourselves in our own life,
but also for the lives of those that we love,
for ones both near and far,
that we want to protect,
that we want to care for,
and we don't know how.
There are real fears in this present moment.
There are also real losses
connected already with the effect of this pandemic
on our lives.
Some have already lost jobs.
Many more likely will.
You've lost financial stability.
You've lost income.
You worry about whether you'll be able to stay
in the home you live in,
how you will feed yourself and your family.
We've not only lost financial stability,
we've lost social milestones
that become so important.
Birthdays and graduations have been canceled.
Weddings have been put off or done alone.
And funerals have been canceled
or done with only the closest members.
These are not recoverable milestones.
They are real losses.
And we've lost connection too.
We lose the necessary fabric
of the love of people around us,
the importance of physical touch.
We're separated from our families,
from our classmates,
from our church family,
from our friends.
And in the reality of this,
the fire heats up.
And it shows the impurities of our hearts,
doesn't it?
Or to change the metaphor,
the pressure of our circumstances
squeezes us like a toothpaste tube.
It doesn't make what's inside.
It just merely lets what's inside
get squeezed out so everyone can see it.
So what comes out of me in a time like this?
Well,
often it's not what I hoped I would be,
but it is what I really am.
This week I've recognized that I have a mode
that I have developed
of how to survive in crisis.
It's to hunker down,
batten down the hatches,
throw all the unnecessary things out of my life,
and to just survive.
And you know,
there may be some wisdom in some of those things.
I want to manage well.
I want to develop good strategies.
But I know in my heart,
I don't do that by turning to God
and allowing Him to be my refuge
as I batten down the hatches.
It's more my New England bones,
pulling up my bootstraps,
protecting myself
with a deep fear
that no one else will take care of me,
no one else will protect me,
and it's up to me
to do it all.
That's what I've seen in my own heart.
And do you know what happens?
I have these little warning lights
that come up on my dashboard of my life.
Irritability.
I find myself impatient,
easily angered,
growing in my frustration with little things.
When life doesn't work right,
I find my fuse is very short.
I also know that for some of us,
withdrawal will be a major warning line.
We may sleep all day.
We may run to our addictions,
whether they be social media or narcotics,
whether they be pornography or Netflix.
We abandon ourselves into these things
to withdraw from the challenges ahead
that we face.
Some of us may be prone
to have a warning sign of frantic activity.
My kids are at home.
I have to be the perfect Pinterest parent
and have a 14-point plan for my kids
every day of what they're going to do.
Some of us,
our frantic activity is cleaning the house
and finding something else to do
to distract ourselves from the challenges
that we face.
Some of us spend all of our time on social media.
What's the latest news release?
What's the latest update?
What is that counter that keeps going up and up and up
about the number of people affected by this virus?
And we incessantly obsess
and frantically take hold of these things.
These are warning signs
of our heart.
Instead of running to God,
we often run to other things.
We run to these things
that are not always bad things,
but when we make them
the ultimate things in our lives,
they are in fact
an abandonment of God.
What are some of these things?
We might become consumed
with our health and safety.
And so in doing so,
we become committed
to protecting ourselves
and we lose
our love for our neighbor,
our ability to think about
anyone but ourselves.
When we make this
our number one priority,
we abandon God
who is the author of life
and of death
and who has numbered our days.
We want to control that
rather than trusting in Him.
Another thing we might run to
is our productivity.
Some of us struggle
because suddenly
we have to slow down
and we don't like that.
We don't like
not being able to do the work
that we usually do.
And we don't like
the loss of projects
and accomplishments.
We feel exposed
because our self-importance
feels like it's slipping
through our fingers
as we're more and more
unable to do
what we want to do.
When we cling
to that productivity,
we abandon God
who gives us work
not for our meaning
but for His glory.
Some of us love
and in the crisis,
we,
what rises to the top
is competence.
I want to know
how to respond
and manage this situation.
This might be partly
what I love.
Whether it's homeschooling
your kid,
whether it's navigating
new technologies,
you find yourself
constantly driving
to how do I learn?
How do I become competent?
How do I succeed
in all of these things?
Here might be
the dashboard light for you.
Do you spend more time
researching these things
on the internet
than you do
reading your Bible?
We abandon God
who is the God
of all knowledge
and we abandon God
who is able to do
for us
what we are unable
to do for ourselves.
We seek a competence
in ourselves
that deny God
in our lives.
and this leads
very closely
into the next one
which is control.
We love to be in control,
don't we?
We want to be able
to determine
our circumstances,
to be able to
control our outcomes.
I had plans
and they've been
taken out of my hand
and I want to cling
to them
and I find myself
struggling with bitterness
at losing
some of those plans.
But when we cling
to those things
and cling to that desire
for control,
we abandon God
who says,
I know the plans
that I have for you
and they are not
for your destruction
but they're for your good.
Finally,
one of the things
that we've seen
in our culture
and in our own hearts
is that crisis like this
squeeze out
our independence.
I want to do
what I want to do.
I do me,
you do you.
I'm going to go
to spring break
and do that thing.
Many of those kids
have repented
of those statements
since then,
thankfully.
But is it not true
that we all
are reaching those points
where we don't care,
we just want to do
what we want to do.
We don't care
how much it's affected
and we feel
this growing sense
inside of us
that's going to burst out.
If I can't do this,
if I can't do
what I want to do,
I'm going to explode.
And in doing that,
we deny a God
who has loved us
with a great
and sacrificial love
that said,
not my will
but thine be done, God.
our independence
is the very core
of our rejection
of God
and we abandon him
in it.
I hope by exploring
these things,
we might see
that our story
is not so different
from Peter's.
Oh,
we would never admit
that we would just
stand up and say,
oh,
I don't believe
any of that anymore.
But in our actions
and in our hurt attitudes,
how often
have we abandoned God
in this last week?
In the crucible,
I too
abandon him
and act like
I don't know him.
But what does Jesus do
with Peter
and with us?
Look with me
at the passage again.
Verse 61.
The Lord turned
and looked
at Peter.
Now,
we're not quite sure
how this was staged.
Somehow,
Jesus,
maybe he was being walked
from one room
to another.
Maybe there was
an open doorway
that could be seen
in to where Jesus
was being held.
But however it happened,
Jesus,
in that moment,
was able to turn
and look
and make eye contact
with Peter.
And in that look,
Peter was reminded
that Jesus knew
that this was going
to happen.
He had predicted
that he would fail him.
But he had also predicted,
I am going to pray
for you
that you may not
be overcome,
but that you will
stand through this.
And that when you come back
after your failure,
that you will be able
to feed your brothers
and shepherd them.
Jesus' look
was one
that both reminded
Peter
of his sovereign holiness.
I knew
that this was going
to happen, Peter.
I knew your weakness.
I told you
this was going
to happen.
And yet,
his immense
grace
to us.
Peter
abandoned Jesus,
but Jesus
has not abandoned
us.
In fact,
he looks to us
in growing,
in gracious,
and knowing love.
You've heard it said
many times,
Pastor Tim Keller
from New York City,
the gospel is this,
we are more sinful
and flawed
in ourselves
than we ever
dared believe.
We have in the seed
of our hearts
every day
the ability
to abandon
and deny God.
And yet,
at the very
same time,
we are more
loved and accepted
in Jesus Christ
than we ever
dared hope.
You see,
this story
of Peter's failure
doesn't happen
in a vacuum.
It happens
as Jesus
is headed
towards the cross,
which is the greatest
moving
of a holy God
towards people
who don't deserve him.
In fact,
in just the next
chapter,
Jesus will hang
on that cross
and he will cry out,
my God,
why have you
forsaken me?
Jesus will go
to the cross
and be abandoned
by his Father
to rescue people
like us
who abandoned him.
And this is
the good news
of the gospel,
that even
in our greatest
failures
this week,
even in our
greatest struggles,
Jesus has not
abandoned us.
He goes to the cross
to take the penalty
for our rebellion
and our denial
of him
so that it might
be taken away.
What a rich,
what a beautiful
savior we have
who does this
for us
to rescue us
so that that
failure of Peter's
or that failure
that you've had
this week,
this month,
sometime in your life
does not define you.
But the God
of redemption
has been abandoned
by God for you
so that you might
be abandoned,
so that you might
be redeemed
out of your
abandoning him,
so that you might
be brought back.
To this I hold,
my sin has been
defeated,
Jesus now,
and ever
is my plea.
Oh, the chains
are released,
I can sing
I am free,
yet not I,
but Christ in me.
And friends,
if you're looking
for hope today
because you identify
with Peter
in your failure,
look ahead
to the beginning
of the book of Acts.
Luke doesn't
recount the restoration
that John does
in John 20,
but in Acts,
Luke presents
Peter again and again,
the leader
of the apostles,
the one who preaches
the gospel boldly
on the day of Pentecost,
the one who stands
before the leaders
when he has been
arrested
for following Jesus
and says,
you tell me,
should I obey God
or man?
I am willing
to suffer
and die
for this Jesus
because he suffered
and died
for me.
Let's pray.
Lord,
thank you for
the cross
and the gospel
hope that we have.
Strengthen us today
to face this crucible,
this trial,
this crisis.
Lord,
with the great knowledge
of your faithfulness
to us,
we pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.