Thank you. Thank you, Clint. Let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 14 as we continue our study as a gospel of Mark We've been in a series for quite a long time called the cross-shaped life and today we find ourselves in chapter 14 I'm going to read for for you verses 66 through 72 Mark 14 66 through 72 If you don't have a Bible We've got Bibles underneath some chairs near you. So pull out a Bible and turn to page 1,084 and you'll find the passage that I'm about to read 1,084
Mark 14 beginning of verse 66 here God's word 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 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 again to say to the bystanders. This man is one of them 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 and Immediately the rooster crowed a second time and Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him Before the rooster crowed twice you will deny me three times And he broke down and wept The word of the Lord Let's pray again and ask God to teach us this morning Lord. We thank you for giving us the word of God to reveal yourself to us and to reveal ourselves To us as well Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit will come now and use our time together to equip us To shape us to build us up as men and women and boys and girls who love you and who love our neighbor And go out from here today changed because we have met with you To minister the good news of Christ to people who are or yet in darkness Will you do that Lord will you come and show us Jesus and we pray this in his name? I'm in Well, we could make a long list of adjectives that describe the disciple Simon Peter impulsive impetuous bold brash a man of conviction confident emotional zealous and many more But today after looking at this passage, we're going to have to add something else about Peter something a bit more tragic And that is that he denied his Lord Well here we are in our study of Mark If you've been with us, you know that we've been traveling through Mark rather slowly to really get a feel For the life of Jesus and understand what he what he's calling us to as his disciples and now we're very close to the cross It's the wee hours of the morning in Jerusalem The Sun has not yet risen. It's still dark outside and bitterly cold The night before Jesus had celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples You remember that and then he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James and John and While they fell asleep, Jesus was wrestling in prayer and apparently Sweating what looked to be drops of blood because Jesus knew that in a matter of hours He would be drinking to the last drop the cup of the wrath of God due to human sin Well then a large crowd of people showed up in that crowd were Roman soldiers and religious leaders and just a massive people from Jerusalem and they'd come out to arrest Jesus. You see
Oh my gosh Judas is scary it had told them that Jesus would be there And so he was paid 30 pieces of silver to lead this crowd out to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was and so they arrested Jesus They tied his hands behind his back and led him bound to the house of Caiaphas Who was the high priest at the time where as we have seen already Jesus was interrogated and falsely accused of sedition and insurrection and judged guilty and worthy of death Question is where were the disciples that whole time
Well, we learned this already in verse 50 Says up there on the page if you look above where I just read It says that they all left him and fled That's right The disciples the disciples the ones whom Jesus had loved who had spent three years with him They all left him in his moment of trial All that is except for Peter You remember what says in verse 54 We saw this as well It says that Peter followed at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest And that's where our story picks up this morning But what Peter did there in that courtyard is very hard to believe Not once not twice but three times He denied even knowing Jesus Christ So two things I want us to gather from this story this morning first How fickle is the human heart And secondly how free is the grace of God So follow along that outline as we dig into this amazing and fascinating story First thing let's find out is how fickle is the human heart You know Peter had some really really great qualities In fact, I would say that Peter is someone we would aspire to be like in many many different respects Who wouldn't want to be called the rock after all That's what his name meant he was a caloric right he was Zealous he was full of zeal full of emotion a man of action a man of passion It was Peter, you know who walked on water It was Peter who more than any of the other disciples Really understood the identity of Jesus Matthew 16 Who do men say that I am Peter knew who Jesus was he said you are the Christ The son of the living God Peter often served as the spokesman for the 12 disciples Every time you see a list of the disciples in the New Testament Peter's name appears first He was a man's man. He was a leader of leaders But now here he is in this courtyard of the high priest denying Jesus Christ The word deny in verses 68 and 70 It means to disown Means to refuse to be associated with someone else To deny means to repudiate any relationship that you might have had with somebody What an awful thing to do It's the ultimate form of rejection It's treating somebody as though he or she doesn't even exist When I was in high school I dated a girl named Susan that was before I met Suzy But Susan was somebody I was madly in love with I really thought that I would marry her someday I'm so glad I did But I really did seriously love this girl and she and I dated we were really good friends And then something happened over the summer before our senior year I still to this day don't know But when we got together back in school September of our senior year she Totally for that whole year treated me as though we had no relationship whatever It was the most devastating thing It took me some years to get over honestly. I know that was a long time ago But if you've ever been if you've ever been disowned if you've ever been rejected by a friend What about by a child by a parent By a fiancee perhaps by a spouse You know what I'm talking about You know Jesus when it comes to Peter had predicted that this would happen Earlier in this same chapter chapter 14 of Mark Jesus had said to the disciples you will all fall away And what did Peter do he said no no no Jesus I protest there is no way on earth You don't know what you're talking about I will never fall away even though day they do I will not But that's when Jesus told Peter Peter this very night this very night before the rooster crows You're gonna deny me three times you don't believe that but you are And that's exactly what happened Peter comes into this courtyard He joins with some people who were sitting around a fire and then this young girl who had let him in at the gate Keep staring at Peter Now you've done this too. I suspect you've been in a restaurant or a public place and you see somebody that You know you've seen them before and you look at them and you stare at them and you tell your friend I know that person over there. I can't remember her name But I know I know that person. That's what's going on here in the garden And the longer this young girl keeps staring at Peter she knows who he is It's dark. So it takes her a little while But the more she sees the light of the fire playing off of Peter's face she's sure of it And she comes over to Peter and she says first of all you were with that man that man from Nazareth But Peter says no and he joins that no with this legal oath that was Common in that day. I neither know him nor do I understand what you're talking about But she presses in and a few minutes later. She says it again to the people who were standing around in the courtyard She said This man is one of them those those followers of Jesus And Peter over here's that and he denies it again in verse 70 But it's interesting that in verse 70 the word denied is in the imperfect Greek tense We've talked about that before it's talking about continuous action So it's over and over Peter repeatedly denies knowing anything about Jesus you've got the wrong man I don't even know what you're talking about and pretty soon everybody in the courtyard is talking About Peter and they say You're not from around here. Are you you ever been told that because of your accent? I sure have And they say to him your accent betrays you you're from up north You're from up you're you're from Galilee Because you're not from around here in Jerusalem, Judea the southern area and then verse 71 Peter Invokes a curse on himself and he begins to swear I don't know this man of whom you speak now that's so toned down in English But in Greek he uses the word a nathema A nathema let me be a cursed let me be devoted to destruction Let me be under the ban of God You imagine If I know that guy If I'm lying to you let God's curse fall on me And notice that Peter can't even bring himself to say Jesus's name
Now before we go any further. Let's give Peter Some credit Instead of running away which the other disciples did Now as a little aside in the gospel of John there is a reference to another disciple that was in the courtyard Some scholars say maybe that was John himself But apparently he didn't stick around long because nothing more said to about him But at least Peter followed this all the way into the courtyard and stayed there while he was being interrogated It was at a distance yes But Peter followed Jesus why because he really did love Jesus He did Peter's sin was not like Judas's sin We've learned about Judas is scary it already Matt preached about him a couple weeks ago and talked about the betrayal that Judas perpetrated upon Jesus Betrayal is when someone you love someone you trust Turns around and You know stabs you in the back Does the opposite of what you might expect him to do but Peter was not a Judas that's different He never betrayed Jesus He did a risky thing and this whole experience was Peter being a bit risky going into the courtyard at all So let's say that about him but He did this own his savior That is huge. He denied Jesus. He who on so many other occasions was brash and brave and outspoken In his defense of Jesus even pulling a sword and lopping off a guy's ear in the garden of Gethsemane Here in this moment becomes a coward Turncoat a liar How could that happen? Why did he do it? Answer he was afraid Simple as that he was afraid Afraid of what first he feared for his safety He feared for his safety for one thing this was a huge crowd ramped up crowd of armed and angry people that brought Jesus to the house of the high priest So let's not sanitize that this is a dangerous moment I'm sure I many of you Perhaps would feel a lot of fear with an angry crowd like that in fact over in John chapter 20 verse 19 We find out that the disciples after the crucifixion were hiding behind locked doors and it says for fear of the Jews So this fear was very real but Peter didn't just fear for his safety No, in fact, I think it was that was secondary He feared embarrassment He feared the disapproval of people Here in this moment Peter didn't want to be labeled as an associate of a Nazarene You know, that's what the servant girl called Jesus the Nazarene. It was a term of derision Nazareth of Galilee was where the unlearned lived the poor the unsophisticated They weren't like the more cultured people of the south so Peter didn't want to be associated with that He didn't want to be labeled as someone who believed Jesus's Messianic claims But here's where that fear of man really becomes Gets into sharper focus. Alistair beg. Alistair beg as a preacher. He said it this way Peter loved himself too much to face the consequences of what Selfless devotion to Jesus would actually mean Listen to that again Peter loved himself too much to face the consequences of what selfless devotion to Jesus would actually mean Here's how I apply that when self advancement self-promotion self-preservation are more important to me or to you than the advancement and the promotion of Jesus Then you and I denied a Lord like Peter did When we care more about the opinion of others than God's opinion of us We deny Jesus like Peter did When we are embarrassed for the name of Christ when we are hesitant to step out and let it be known That we love Christ that we believe the Bible that we are people who seek to honor the Lord We are denying Jesus just like Peter did I totally get that I had I have to admit to you all That if you were to ask me Mike, what is your biggest idol? I would immediately tell you it's the approval of other people
I like to be liked I fear man Sometimes I want to be liked more than I want to be faithful to Jesus
I've been in situations before where to admit that I'm a minister I feel that hesitation Oh It's embarrassing sometimes for me
So I I can totally relate to Peter maybe you can too
Maybe you've seen this picture before Does anybody recognize this? Those of you who are psychology majors in college every psych major knows about the ash as CH experiment It was done back in 1951 or so Dr. Solomon ash Was a professor at Swarthmore College and he decided to do an experiment to see To test the effect of social pressure On a person's need to conform We would today call it peer pressure is a peer pressure test And so here's what he did dr. Ash Got about 123 different students together And he divided them up into groups of seven or eight And privately he told Everybody in every group except for one That they were supposed to cooperate with him in this test And really he was only experimenting with one person in each of these groups So he told Everybody else in each group to He was going to show them these cards and he wanted them to sometimes give the right answer And sometimes the wrong answer the question was The card on the left the line on the left which one does it match on the right And he said most of the times give the right answer But every so often give a wrong answer and i'm going to watch and see what that other guy in your group does And so all six or seven of the people in each group they went first And here's what they would do they would look at this set of cards that were laid out on the table And they would say that line on the left matches line a on the right Now you're looking at that and it's clearly not the same But all six or seven of these people that line matches a and then he watched to see what the last guy would do And do you know that only 25% of the people in this test Only 25% never conformed That means three out of four of those students who were being watched Every now and then they would agree with the wrong answer just because everybody else in their group gave the wrong answer And after the test was over he interviewed the people he told them what you know what fools they had made of themselves And he told them uh he asked them why did you do that? Why would you why would you agree with the group when you know That it's incorrect and they said they went along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought peculiar That is really telling about human nature isn't it And yet isn't it telling that we who are believers in Jesus often do the same thing We go along with the crowd rather than standing out and saying no, no, no, this is what is true What about a time when you didn't want to be thought of as weird or peculiar can you think of it even now as you're sitting there in your chair Was it when you were with a group of people at work or at school and the conversation veered off into godlessness and rather than Speak out and you know defend Christ or even walk away and not be a part of it you you cooperated with the game You threw your lot in with them because you wanted to be what liked Or what about the time maybe you are on a business trip with a a few colleagues and you were driving in a car to a destination There were hours that you had with these people who don't know Christ and it would have been a perfect time to have Something of a spiritual conversation at least see where the conversation might go or share your story of your faith in Christ But rather than that you hesitated because you wanted to be approved of you wanted to fit in It happens in a lot of different ways. It might even happen in something really practical like the handling of your money You know you might get your paycheck and you know that you are to be a steward of that money and part of that money should be given to the Cause of Christ in the local church But rather than give that money you think you know I could do this with that money or I hate to say no to my child about that money or look at my neighbor at what he or she has I could use my money to keep up with that neighbor whatever the case you hold back faithfulness Because of this need for approval you see we're very much like Peter We often want man's approval more than gods and listen the more marginalized Christianity becomes in our culture This is only going to get worse It's only going to become more tempting to deny Jesus Just like Peter did in order to be liked accepted in order to not be embarrassed And yet you know what as much as I say these things with conviction When I was studying this passage often I caught myself thinking Oh, I would have never done that what Peter did What a ridiculous thing to do he he you know at least after that first denial He could have stopped and turned the tide and not done it again, but three times Peter what in the world Were you thinking I I said to myself you know if I've been in that position. I wouldn't have done that I would have gone to jail for Jesus. I would have given my life for Jesus Yeah, right See, that's what Peter had said That's exactly what Peter had said lord I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death and yet here he is in the courtyard. What's that proverb Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall Friends beware of bravado Beware of hubris you know what I'm saying beware of that extreme self-confidence that makes you think oh, I got it together. I know what I'm doing. I can handle this I would never have done that you know That's bravado and the bible says to beware of it you think you know your own heart You do not know your own heart as well as you think Jeremiah the prophet said that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick You don't know your own heart. So don't trust yourself You know one thing that strikes me about Peter is that he's all by himself here See when we get all by ourselves and cut ourselves off from community and expose ourselves to temptation We're more likely to fall and deny Christ as he did because we think we're okay. We're strong. We can do it Beware of bravado If a rock like Peter can be crushed by the heavy idol of approval so can you If someone with the zeal of Peter can deny Jesus No telling what any of us is capable of doing given the right circumstances And it probably won't be a big thing that'll take you out It'll be a small thing It'll be that short conversation by the water cooler The 15 minutes at a computer screen late at night the chance meeting in the elevator the small business transaction Why it was a young servant girl who threatened Peter's ego This was not a religious leader that came up to him and said hey, don't you know Jesus? It was a young servant girl a person of relative social insignificance not anyone to be afraid of It's the little things That often caused the fall Martin Luther said I am more afraid of my own heart than the Pope and all the Cardinals Are you afraid of your heart? You know what I mean by that? Are you afraid of what you're capable of Given the right set of circumstances if you are you will Trust in God you won't trust in your self-confident attitude And that's a good thing Well, let's go on and see not only that the heart is this fickle thing that we've been talking about But the second thing I want you to see is how free is the grace of God How free is the grace of God Peter's experience here is not just that of conviction I'm going to show you that he experienced hope and grace In addition to the conviction of the Holy Spirit Want you to think about what Luke tells us in his account of this same Story you'd have to look over at Luke chapter 22. I've got it up here on the screen Luke tells us that Peter denied Jesus the first time and then the second time and then the third time And after the third time here's the third one Peter said according to Luke Man, I don't know what you're talking about And immediately While he was still speaking the rooster crow mount but look at the new information Luke gives us Luke says and the Lord turned and looked at Peter Now this is one of the most poignant moments in the whole Bible Jesus has been getting the third degree upstairs in the home of Caiaphas from the high priest and these religious officials And they ramp up the charges and they accuse him of sedition and they begin to take him down the stairs Toward the Roman governor Pontius Pilate who we'll look at next week And as they're bringing Jesus from the upstairs down to the downstairs section of the of the house Peter's down here Near the fire on the lower level And at just the moment that the rooster crowed after his third denial He happens to look there and Jesus happens quote-unquote to look here and their eyes meet each other right after he has just denied his Lord What do you think about that look of Jesus? Was it a look of condemnation Was it a look of shaming Peter was it a scornful judging look you know was where Jesus's eyes kind of crunch like that And was he looking down his nose at Peter saying well well well Peter. I told you so you've made your bed now sleeping it was that Jesus's look Not at all Not at all no How do I know? Because of what we're told in Romans 2 verse 4 Look at it God's kindness Is meant to lead us to repentance See Peter's tears he has crushed in spirit. He breaks down and burst into tears because it's the kindness of Jesus This look of kindness and compassion has brought him to a place of brokenness. It's a beautiful picture Now certainly Jesus was not just blowing off what Peter had done No, this was serious and it hurt Jesus But nowhere is there even a hint That Jesus is now going to write Peter off Like many of us would do right if we're denied by someone Oh, okay, forget it then. I've had it with you Not so in the case of Jesus in fact There's every indication that Peter was totally Completely and gloriously forgiven for denying Jesus If you will turn in mark to a couple a page or two to chapter 16 And let me show you something great it really really encouraging in mark 16 You have an account of the resurrection spoiler alert Jesus does rise again And we'll talk about that at Easter, but I cannot Not take you to this chapter to show you something that's wonderful in mark 16 The women go to the tomb of Jesus. They find that he is not there And then look in mark 16 verse 5 It says and entering the tomb they saw a young man that's an angel sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe And they were alarmed and he said to them don't be alarmed you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified He has risen he is not here see the place where they laid him but go Tell his disciples and Peter That he's going before you to Galilee There you will see him just as he told you why would the angel be sure to say go tell Peter That Jesus will see him in Galilee. Well, isn't it because when we have sinned when we have brought Distribute to the name of Christ we are crushed we are we feel lost we feel hopeless right many times And God didn't want Peter to feel that way He wanted him to know that Jesus was going to meet him in Galilee and meet him he did And he didn't even bring up The sin Now I would have I would have said Peter you know that thing back then that was so uncool It hurt me you shouldn't have you know, I would have I would have talked about it. I would have brought him aside Let's get down about this sin that you commit he didn't even bring it up Because Peter sin was paid for by Jesus on the cross Earlier today we saying oh to grace how great a debtor daily. I'm constrained to be let that grace now like a fetter Find my wandering heart to the A feather that's a chain. It's a shackle. You know what will shackle your heart to Jesus God's grace God's grace was what bound Peter's wandering heart to Jesus Peter went on to do these amazing things for the glory of God the resurrected Christ poured his spirit out on Pentecost And turned Peter from a fearful turncoat into a courageous outspoken leader of the church Peter stood before crowds of people and testified to his faith in Jesus Christ Now he still messed up He still messed up a lot Paul had to rebuke him you know in the book of Galatians for what bowing for the before the idol of approval man's approval. He did it again But the river of God's grace never stopped flowing to and through the apostle Peter According to tradition in fact Peter was crucified in Rome head down By the emperor Nero Because of his testimony and faithfulness to Jesus It was because of the grace of the forgiveness and love of God for Peter We have a wonderful opportunity this morning to celebrate that love and that grace this morning I was talking about this passage with the pastors the other day And BJ Milgate who is the pastor of our campus in Lake Nona told this great story Do you know what this is? Show this picture up there Paul you know what this is It's a bell obviously But it's the bell of shame That navy seals Have to walk over and ring when they give up Yeah during hell week During hell week if they give up if they figure out they're not qualified to be a navy seal They have to walk over to the bell and ring it and lay down their stuff and take off They've been disqualified Christianity is unique Because it says the way to be qualified Is to recognize how unqualified you really are How weak how wandering how frail how vulnerable to temptation you are You and I are to ring the bell And receive the forgiving grace of God Because he came to call not the righteous But sinners And that's what this meal is all about Let's pray Lord Jesus thank you that you came for Peters For weak and frail people for people who don't have it all together as Matt said earlier Thank you that you came for us Lord Who are in ourselves not righteous so that we could have an alien righteousness given to us Based on what you did for us not what we do for you So Lord Jesus thank you Thank you that you forgave us just as you forgave Peter You look at us with compassion just like you looked to him with compassion And so thank you for this meal thank you that you've given us these elements of bread and wine or juice Common everyday elements So that we might feed on Christ And be renewed in our spirits To be able to be Renewed in the sense of being loved and accepted and forgiven by you We ask you to bless these elements to set them apart And use them as means of grace and tokens of the covenant of love That we might be strengthened in our faith and walk out of here as renewed people and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen