FBCWest 604 | Peter Denial
Recorded On: 04/28/2024
Bulletin
Hymn # 183 “Only Trust Him”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 56:9 - 11
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Holy Forever”
“Living Hope”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Peter’s Denial”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Amazing Grace”
Benediction “Praise You Anywhere”
Sermon Notes
John 18:12 & 13 Jesus is arrested, bound and taken to Annas’ house
John 18:14 John reminds us of Caiaphas was the one who said that “it is expedient that one man die on behalf of the people”
John 18:15 & 16 Peter and another disciple follow Jesus to Anna’s house and the other disciple helps Peter to enter
John 18:17 Peter’s first denial
John 18:18 Peter and others warm themselves by a charcoal fire
John 18:19 – 21 Jesus questioned about His teachings and His disciples
John 18:22 Jesus struck
John 18:23 Jesus responds to being struck
John 18:24 Jesus sent bound to Caiaphas, the High Priest
John 18:25 – 27 Peter denies being a disciple for the second and third time and immediately a rooster crowed
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Today's message, we're going to take a look at Peter and his denial of his Lord. It would be easy, and it is easy, to quickly judge Peter for those failures. But sometimes, even though Peter had told Jesus that he'd be willing to die for him, we'll take a look at maybe sometimes it is easier to die for Christ than to live for him. But also, what we're going to take a look at is that while Peter denied Jesus, all of us have done something that we regret or are ashamed of. But the fortunate thing, just like Peter and in our lives as well, that's not the final end to the story. So let's take a look at what Peter does and what will happen.
Alright, if you have your Bibles, and you should, please turn to the Gospel of John chapter 18, and we're going to start with verse 12, which we ended with last time. To remind you of the context, Jesus and his disciples had left the Passover Seder. Jesus continued to teach him as they traveled across to ultimately arrive at the Garden of Gethsemane, which was probably more like an olive orchard.
He prayed for the disciples, and then Judas came and betrayed Jesus.
And there was a Roman cohort with officers and temple officers and guards as well.
And they attempted to seize Jesus, but Jesus again took control of the situation.
Peter, being like Peter, and having told Jesus that he would be willing to die for him, takes out a sword, cuts off Melchias' ear, and Jesus stops him, heals Melchias, and this is where we, the story, proceed from here. So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. And again, I find this amusing because the one who formed the world, the one who performed all kinds of miracles and signs and wonders, they think that simply binding him would somehow prevent him from accomplishing anything that he wanted to, that they would be in control. So binding him, while they thought gave them exercise of control, in reality did nothing. And they led him away to Annas' first, for he was a father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. And so they take him not to the Roman authorities, they take him to a religious authority, which technically at this point isn't a religious authority because he previously was a high priest. Now, you would think that that would be, if you will, a religious authority. But during this period of time, the high priest was not appointed because of his family line under Aaron, but because they bribed people and then they were appointed. And so Annas had served as high priest, and now his son-in-law is serving as high priest. So they take him to Annas and they follow up and say, "Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people." And so it's reminding us that this whole thing is proceeding just as Caiaphas had planned. That Caiaphas thought, "Okay, if we get rid of Jesus, that'll preserve our nation and our authority, and it's better for Jesus to die than for all of us to be disrupted in our lives."
And so the religious authorities are continuing on with that plan. But again, if you will, they take Jesus to the home of Annas. And Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now we're never told who that disciple is.
We're never told in the Gospel of John, generally, that John is the disciple he's talking about. He'll say things like, "Well, the disciple who Jesus loved, he never says it's me." Most people, and I as well think that it's probably John who's the other disciple, because Peter John oftentimes seemed to do things together, and it is believed that John probably had a priestly, Levi type of background, and so he would know the religious authorities, and so would have opportunity to enter into the Annas' courtyard in his place because of that familial relationship. And so it was probably John, but we're never told specifically. Now the disciple was known to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest. And so John is right there seeing what's going on and is seeing specifically the confrontation between Annas and Jesus while Peter's there. And Peter doesn't get access without this disciple's invitation, so he's allowed to go inside the courtyard of the high priest.
But Peter was standing at the door outside, so the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. So Peter kind of hangs outside. John sees that he's hanging outside, brings him into the courtyard, but John continues to take note of what's happening with Jesus while Peter kind of hangs out in the courtyard.
Then the slave girl who kept the door said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" And he said, "I am not." Now this is really interesting because Peter had emphatically during the Passover said that he was willing to die for Jesus.
And then when Jesus was arrested, he took out his sword and cut off Melchizedek's ear, showing that he's not going to let them take Jesus without a fight.
So we see this courage, but it's probably the sense of, "This is what I said, I'm going to do this."
Now unfortunately at times it seems that it is easier to die for Jesus than to live for him. Because to die for Jesus you have to have that one courageous moment who says, "I'm not going any further, you can take my life because I am his."
So it's harder to live for him when day by day we're to carry our own cross, we're to deny ourselves and love others, we're to love the fellow disciples as Jesus has loved us. Following these things that Jesus has taught us can be extremely difficult to do.
Now again I find it interesting that while Peter had been adamant about his willingness to die for Jesus and that he, in front of all these Roman cohorts and religious leaders and temple guards, that he was willing to take action. But after that a slave girl says, "You're one of them."
He doesn't have the courage in front of that single slave girl to say, "Yes I am." He denies it. He denies his relationship between Jesus and him. He denies that he's a disciple. He denies that there's a relationship between them.
But Jesus had already foretold this.
"Now the slaves and the officers who were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves, and Peter was also with them standing and warming himself." Now we kind of need to remember because we kind of think of Israel and Jerusalem as kind of being a semi-arid place that can be warm and hot. But Jerusalem is on a mountain and it is cooler and at the time of year it's probably says that it's cold. And so there is a sense, so they make this charcoal fire as opposed to this wooden fire to warm themselves and people are outside warming themselves. Because let's face it, what's happening on the inside of Aniston's house is a big deal. They have arrested Jesus. They're now, if you will, conducting like a preliminary hearing so that they might be able to condemn Jesus. And so people are wanting to know what's going on.
So while this is happening, we are now taking to the inside of Aniston's house.
Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.
They have already violated the rules of evidence for the Jews, which we kind of in America have the same kind of concept. Our concept is that you're presumed innocent until proven guilty. In the Jewish context, you had to be confronted by two or more witnesses to confirm everything. So there should have been people there saying, "This is what Jesus taught. This is who Jesus' disciples are." And we're indicting him and convicting him based on evidence. Instead, they're asking Jesus in essence to incriminate himself, which is in violation of Jewish law. But that doesn't stop them at all.
And so after the high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching, they're saying, "We want you to tell us what you taught so that we might find some blasphemy in what you're saying so that we can condemn you to death. And we want you to know who your disciples are so that we can tell the Roman government, "Oh, there's a revolution afoot that Jesus is leading all these people in a revolution against Rome, and therefore they should arrest the disciples and just eliminate the problem."
Jesus answered him, "I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews come together and I spoke nothing in secret." Jesus says, "Why are you asking me?
You should be asking the people. You should know because I never taught in secret. I went to the synagogues throughout Israel and taught. I taught at the synagogues in Capernaum and in Nazareth and all other type places. When I came to Jerusalem, I would go to the temple and teach and I taught openly.
So, instead of asking me my teachings, they weren't done in secret. You should know.
Why do you question me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them.
They know what I said." Jesus is telling them, in essence, follow the correct procedure.
"I spoke openly.
Have people who I spoke openly to come and tell you what I said because I didn't say it in secret. So then come and have these people come and testify, if they can, against me, against the teachings that I presented.
And they should know what I said."
When I said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus saying, "Is that the way you answer the high priest?" Now, unfortunately, we get the kind of idea of being struck. It's like maybe he slapped him. Now, this is a ferocious hit.
Jesus is abused throughout this situation. He's abused with his rights. He's abused with the conduct because they were not allowed to strike prisoners before a condemnation.
But this is the way they treated Jesus, because they had contempt for him, because his teachings and who he was went counter to what they thought their interest was.
So Jesus says, "Before you stroke me, what is it that I said wrong?
What contempt that I offered to Annas?
Instead, you strike me, but you didn't show that I did anything wrong."
Again, this shows the utter contempt that they hold for Jesus, that they hold Jesus in less regard than a Jewish citizen, and that the violation of some type of conduct
before Annas by simply saying, "Bring witnesses and let them talk. Somehow now, he deserves being stricken."
So Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. And so this preliminary hearing, if you will, didn't work out so well because they didn't get the evidence that they thought they could get to condemn Jesus. So now they're going to send him off to Caiaphas, who's the high priest, and that's probably going to be, again, another religious trial before the Sanhedrin.
The four gospels never talk about all of the trials within any one gospel.
Jesus is subject to numerous trials. He's here, if you will, like at a preliminary hearing at Annas' house. He's going to go to Caiaphas before the Sanhedrin. He's going to go before Herod. He's going to go before Pilate. He's going to go back to here. He's going to be shuffled back and forth because no one wants to deal with who Jesus is other than the fact that everybody, other than perhaps Pilate, with Pilate consents, you get rid of Jesus.
And so again, they bind Jesus, which I think is humorous because the one who said, "Let there be light,"
who calms the seas, who created the mountains, who created the very elements that bind him,
could somehow limit his power.
But they think that that gives them safety and power, so they do.
Now, Simon Peter was standing in the warm in himself, and remember that's at the charcoal fire. So they said to him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" So again, this is the second time someone says, "You're a disciple."
No one says, "You're a disciple and you ought to be killed or arrested." They simply say, "Aren't you one of his disciples?"
And his response is, "I am not."
So the second time, Peter denies Jesus.
That is very easy for you and I to condemn him. How dare he deny his Lord?
Jesus had taught, "If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father who is in Heaven." So this, if you will, is a catastrophic event potentially in Peter's life,
because he's denying the one that he's had basically about a three and a half year relationship with. One who has taught him, one has showed him love, one who has done miracles and healings and wonders,
and he doesn't want any connection with him.
And one of the slaves of the high priest, meaning a relative of the one who's ear Peter cut off. So now this one is even closer.
He says, "I know what you did. When Jesus got arrested, you cut off one of my relative's ear."
"Did I not see you in the garden with him?" So now not only is somebody accusing him of knowing anybody goes, "Wait a minute. You were there. You were the guy who took the sword out and cut off Melchizedek's ear. You were there, your disciple. You tried to defend Jesus."
Peter then denied it again and immediately a roaster crowed. Now Jesus had foretold Peter when Peter was so adamant that he would die for Jesus. Jesus said, "You'll deny me three times before the rooster crows."
Which basically means before it even gets all that light this day, you'll deny me three times.
And it comes to pass.
And again, we could look at it and say, "Peter, how could you do such a thing?"
At the same time, I have jokingly said, but it's more true than a joke, I have been faithful to the Lord several times.
It is easy to condemn Peter for his lack of courage.
The one who is willing to defend Jesus before a Roman army denies him in front of slave girls.
But there have been times that I have and I'm sure you have done things that you regret.
That you're sorry for, that you're ashamed of, and that you would not want to be defined by what you did then.
The amazing thing is, we aren't.
This is not the end of Peter's story. This is the end of this message and this is the end of this situation.
But Peter is going to go on and the Lord is going to use Peter in an amazing way, not too far from now. And he is going to rejoice when he is beaten and jailed. He is going to even eventually be crucified upside down. Peter is going to show what it is to be a true disciple.
Jesus didn't condemn Peter here because the Lord showed Peter grace, unmerited favor.
You would think if anybody would deserve to be condemned, it would be Peter because how dare he deny Jesus in this situation.
And yet, we frequently when we do things, we either want to escape it or we overly condemn ourselves for having the lack of faith or the lack of courage to have done what we ought to have done or refrain from doing what we did do.
But we and you are not defined by that action.
Because God gives grace.
We are not defined by all the wrong that we do.
We are defined by his grace, by his unmerited favor, by his love.
And we are going to see that there is an extreme difference between the one who betrayed, who did not repent, he was sorry but he did not repent, and Peter, who thought that there would be a difference in their relationship.
See, Jesus used him in an awesome way.
And to tell Peter his plans for him and then what Peter was to do. And so while we take a look at this and we rightfully want to rebel from what Peter did,
therefore the grace of God go you and me.
But because of the grace of God, we can be forgiven no matter what we have done or did it do.
Or who we claim to defend or not to defend because his grace is amazing in all God's people say.