The Perils of Pride: Mark 14:53-72

Well, this morning we continue in our series in the Gospel of Mark.

We come to the events that surround Jesus' impending death.

And so we continue in Mark 14.

And you can find that in page 800 in your church Bible if you want to follow along there.

And they led Jesus to the high priest.

And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest.

And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire.

Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death.

But they found none.

For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.

And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands.

Yet even about this their testimony did not agree.

And the high priest stood up in the midst of and asked Jesus, Have you no answer to make?

What is it that these men testify against you?

But he remained silent and made no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

And Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

And the high priest tore his garments and said, What further witnesses do we need?

You have heard his blasphemy.

What is your decision?

And they all condemned him as deserving death.

And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, Prophesy.

And the guards received him with blows.

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 crows twice, you will deny me three times.

And he broke down and he wept.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for uh these words.

Thank you, Lord, for the way in which uh you have indeed spoken words uh that that amaze us, words that uh are sometimes hard to even comprehend and to take in, the immensity of of the nature of it.

To consider the words that have such meaning and such significance.

Father, we ask and we pray that even now you give us to see uh something of your glory in these words that we've just read.

Show us your glory, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We have before us one of the most scandalous hearings in all of history.

God in the person of his son on trial.

Although the heavens declare the glory of God, though people being made in his image, they have hauled him into the presence of the high priest, to appear before the whole council.

Though innocent, he is forced to appear before the chief priests, to appear before the elders, to appear before the scribes, each of which are motivated with firm resolve to convict Jesus of a capital crime.

No other trial, no other hearing in history before or after has greater and more significant implications than the one that we just read, along with all of the proceedings to come.

Not only that, but we're met with an intimately personal account of a disciple caught in the devil's trap, seduced by a proud heart.

A sequence of denials that lead to his preservation of life, yes, but at the cost of denial and betrayal of his Lord.

And as we look at these words and we see how they've been written here, the literary form here is intended to portray these actions that have been unfolding as synchronous events, both, as you will, playing out at the same time.

Why does Mark, writing from Peter's testimony, record these events like this?

Because he intends to communicate against the backdrop of human weakness and failure, the glory of Jesus Christ.

Jesus accomplishing all that he had set out to do.

We know that from the very beginning, Genesis 3.15.

That God would send one to come and to crush the head of a serpent.

And another sense we know that this was also owing to the work of principalities and powers and the fallen hearts of men.

We see the devil employing those who are willing to make false claims in this hearing.

How many, even today, still still increase the hostility against Jesus, adding confusion to his name through false testimony?

How many today still offering false testimony about Jesus and who he really is today?

Things haven't changed.

I can't tell you how much damage has been done, even in my own personal experience.

How much damage has been done by people not knowing any better, being told and assumed to be as fact.

What has been shared by others, something that has common arisen from their imagination or their perceptions of who Jesus is.

Perceptions and imaginations taken as fact and being led to great confusion.

I mean, that's still going on today, but it was taking place then.

But we ask again, well, what lie at the root of this cosmic battle?

Uh the crux of the issue comes down to one question.

Are you the one?

Not someone, but are you the one?

The Son of God.

The words of the psalmist are fulfilled here as we read this account.

The words that say, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.

The hostility that was here in that room that night was clear.

Because let's be clear, these folk here didn't want Jesus dead because he was a carpenter.

They didn't want him dead because he was a teacher.

They didn't want to kill him because he had displayed many miracles and was a miracle worker.

Or because he was a moral example.

It was his claim to be God's son that they took offense at.

Jesus here equating himself to be God's Son, equating himself with God, that's what they couldn't handle.

And Jesus, in testifying to that truth, was given the charge of blasphemy and death.

And so the question, I think, remains: well, how does one come to a place of pouring out hatred and contempt, spitting, and even calls for death?

And the answer, if we take a closer look, is not that those present knew better and yet chose to do something different anyway.

The answer is not that they knew better.

Actually, it wasn't because they were motivated by disobedience.

Because it's clear here that they thought themselves to be carrying out God's will.

And you might say, well, yes, but these were men of learning.

They were men who had knowledge, they were men who had training, they had been so so-called, given to the right schools.

And you'd be right in observing all of that.

And so, but we shouldn't look at them and we should, we we can't say, therefore, that, okay, well, they were just foolish.

No, they they were educated, they were competent, they were able men, and they were even acting with great zeal.

None of that we can fault them for.

And so we ask again, what is owing to the hostility?

And at the heart of this we see the ignorance and the charms of pride.

One commentator characterizes it well, like hypocrisy, pride often looks and feels like commitment, devotion, and sacrifice for the kingdom.

Like hypocrisy, self-righteousness takes many wily forms.

It can hide itself in the most educated heart, hiding behind the appearance of respectability, with an eye to superiority, selfish gain, a grasp for control.

It can look very disciplined.

You can have all of this and be blinded by its influence.

And so it serves as a warning to the seducing nature of pride.

We see how deceptive pride is, even when we we look at those who are trained in the scriptures themselves, and yet they were unable to see, no doubt, scriptures they themselves had spoken, like Isaiah 53.

What does Isaiah 53 say?

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

No doubt they had quoted that.

No doubt they knew it, perhaps even knew it by heart, and yet failed to see that this was being fulfilled in this hearing.

Again, what accounts for the hostility?

Answer they saw no value in Jesus.

There was no beauty, there was no majesty about him that made him desirable.

That is why all this is going on.

They failed, all of this can be boiled down to one thing: they failed to see the glory of Christ.

How do we know this is the root of the issue?

We know this is the root of the issue because, in the likes of 1 Corinthians 2.8, we read that even these people, had they known that Jesus was the Son of God, that his death would fulfill God's plan for salvation, they would not have executed him.

Why?

Because that would have meant that they would have been given something to see of his glory.

And so what does that tell us?

Well, it tells us this that only the eyes of enlightened hearts can be given to see something of this majesty.

To be given to see something of the measurable worth of Christ.

The kind of worth that leads us to say, I've been given to see even into heaven itself.

But all of that requires a humble heart.

Why?

Well, because pride is too full of self to glory in Christ.

I like to think of it like uh looking through a pair of binoculars.

Imagine if I desiring to look over at a beautiful landscape were to grab my binoculars and want to see all of that up close.

Imagining that I reach for my binoculars, but but the lenses are dirty.

Well, as I look through those binoculars, that dirt would color everything that I see.

Right?

So instead of seeing the sun, the the vivid greens, the reds, other warm colors, I would see everything as dark and lacking clarity and muddy.

And the tragedy is that if I didn't know any better, I'd be led to say that I was seeing everything clearly and just as it ought to be.

But then imagine, on the other hand, if I were to take that same pair of binoculars and and I were to see with clarity the lens has been clean.

Well, I'd be led to see the beauty.

I'd be led to see the sun, the sun's light revealing all of all of those beautiful colors on that landscape.

So that even though I had seen the same view, there would be a world of difference encountered.

And so it is with spiritual realities.

The lens of the heart matters and colors everything that we see.

Pride and humility are two lenses for which it will color our world in the spiritual life.

And so what is being said here is we need to see the sun of Christ's glory.

When you see the sun, you don't need to be told that you've seen the sun, do you?

And seeing the sun, you're convinced of its reality.

The same is true when we see the radiance of the glory of Christ.

And seeing him, you are convinced of the truth, that you have seen something that is heavenly, that is glorious, that is not of this world.

And so you come to see that and be gripped by that.

And it's self-attesting in that sense.

So when you look at the scriptures, the theologians talk about the scriptures being self-attesting.

That is, that we don't need to try to find ways to defend the Bible, but that in seeing the glory of Christ and his glory itself, that speaks.

And that confirms that it's true.

Because we've seen a glory that our souls know are not of this world, but that is owing to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Author and theologian Michael Reeves, some of you know, wrote a book, Delighting in the Trinity.

He speaks of days prior to having written that book.

And he gives a testimony to this blindness in his own journey.

He says, I had a season of life under the under the tyranny of unanswered doubts and questions that haunted me and brought me to the lowest point in my life, to what he describes as a suicidal despair.

He says I was brought up in an evangelicalism that was quite rationalistic.

I went to a private school and then to Cambridge University, and that meant really until the age of 21, I'd been told, you are the best and the brightest.

There certainly was a huge amount of pride in me.

I felt Jesus would be honored to have me on his team, and I was confident that I was bright enough to establish the reliability of Christianity for myself and make it logically sound and tight for others.

And then it all fell apart.

Instead of rationally winning over converts for Christ, at the age of 21, he found himself locked in darkness and uncertainty, the bleakest year of his life, in which he doubted everything he had assumed and started to feel the despair of personal desolation close in on his life.

And it was during that time that God then met him and through some trusted guides who pointed him to the scriptures, which of course he had familiarity with, came to see that he had been engaged in the scriptures without an enlightenment in his own heart, that then led him to see and believe with new clarity.

Eyes that gave him men to see the glory of Christ.

And so reflecting on these years where he began to see this the scriptures in a new way and saw this glory being howled out before him, this wonderful light.

He says, reflecting on these years, the despair I had been in was very real and very intense.

So the liberation of having a sure foundation in Scripture, to know a gracious God, to see the glory of a beautiful Christ, and to know sure acceptance with him was all life-changing and immensely sweet.

And it saved my life.

No longer chasing a million historical confirmations that could never quite close the case or finally settle any lurking doubts.

That leads us then to see this glory.

And what we see in this passage very clearly is that God will frustrate any attempts to obscure his glory with our own.

Not because he himself is proud, but exactly the opposite.

So that as the sun gives light and life and healing and warmth to the earth, to obscure his glory is to attempt to block the needed light that warms and brings life for the healing of our souls.

That's why he's jealous for his glory and won't let anyone obscure it.

His glory is our greatest need.

And so we ask the question: how then is this veil taken away?

And the answer is only in humbling ourselves from this pride, from our own pride.

Only then are we given this kind of spiritual perception so that our mind is brightened with the spiritual light.

Only in humbling ourselves are we given the spiritual light, and then under its light to be to be given to see the cross.

And to understand that this act that we've even just read here wasn't only committed by others a long time ago, but was also my doing and your doing.

That it was acting, that was owing to my sin that required his death.

So that in a new spiritual light, we are we are taken to the cross to see ourselves as those who put him on there, our sin owing to his need to be there.

In order to satisfy divine justice, in order to save me personally, knowing that at any time he could have called down legion angels to take him down from the proceedings, to halt the proceedings, and to be rescued from this.

But because he saw you and because he saw me, he remained there silent like a lamb.

Why?

Well, because he knew that to satisfy divine justice it required his sacrifice.

And so he remained there on trial, subjecting himself to humiliation, subjecting himself to being treated with contempt and even beatings.

And I'll ask you this morning, what do you know of his glory?

What reason is Jesus of any interest to you?

Why do you sit before him even now?

Is it for the music?

Is it for the fellowship?

The sacraments?

None of these are enough if we don't go beyond that and see something of his glory.

And it's here at the cross that we see his glory most clearly.

God in the flesh on trial, rejected, so that we might be approved.

Have you ever come to see him under that light?

Do you believe it?

Do you believe that Jesus was there that night for your sakes?

The glory of the gospel is that there's no coercion, there's no oppression, there's no manipulation.

All it requires is a humbling of anything in yourself as you look upon the majesty and the brilliance of the one who came to save you.

And as you see him gloriously lifted up, to see your complete bankruptcy without him, his spirit, even making familiar truths, to be set ablaze within our hearts.

That's all clearly portrayed in what Jesus is doing as he's sentenced to death.

But then we go on to ask another question.

What do we make of Peter?

What do we make of pride, not only in the unregenerate heart, but also in the regenerated heart?

Right?

The heart that has come to see something of this glory, the heart that has come to see something of its beauty.

They're not here to make themselves look good.

Peter here is sharing his testimony as a backdrop for the glory of Jesus to shine.

And you see, the truth is that it does present Peter in a rather bad light.

Right?

The boast that he said, even I would never deny you Jesus.

Even, even if it came down to the death, I would not deny you.

Willing to die with him if necessary.

Remember that this was the same Peter who had been with Jesus for three years, enjoying his companionship.

This is the same Peter who had seen some amazing wonders along with the other disciples.

The same Peter who had needed rescuing from the sea.

The same Peter who had received provisions from Jesus' hand.

The same Peter who, through Jesus, was able to see him transfigu before him and was told that he would be a pillar for his church.

But now we see awkwardly under the cloak of secrecy that same Peter denying Jesus when questioned by a servant girl of a young age.

And not only once, but twice, three times.

The final time, cursing and swearing.

And then the rooster crows.

And remembering Jesus' words, the pain and the grief, just swallow him up.

Again, what do we make of this?

What do we make of those who follow Christ, who have shown signs of an enlightened heart?

Only then to turn and walk down roads that are dark, seemingly to turn their back on Jesus, Christ, and the gospel.

What do we make of that?

I think for one, Peter's example reminds us not to judge too quickly.

If pride can be found in the heart of Peter, it surely can be found even in the most faithful soldier.

Without a sense of the nearness of our Lord's acceptance and approval, we can all be caught looking for it elsewhere.

And the tragedy is that when it comes to pride, often the first sin isn't the only sin, often leading to more pain and a greater fall.

And I would ask you, what about your own heart?

What are you praying for?

The scriptures remind us we need to be vigilant, that we are in a war, that we do face principalities and powers.

Are you praying as Jesus taught us?

And as Jesus prayed for Peter, for a faith that won't fail.

There are many fires that we can be tempted to warm our hearts with.

Pretending to warm ourselves because we just we try to push off the fact that it's being done under his eye.

And the truth is, when it comes to denial, we may not necessarily deny him with our lips, but we can deny him with our lives.

We can deny him with a closed mouth.

We can deny him with a life of disobedience.

One who has loved you as a friend.

How near is your heart to the one who has proven to be so faithful to you?

Who has only given you what's good, who has made you a precious stone in his church, who has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies?

Who has given you to see some amazing and majestic things?

You may have even walked with him for many years.

Are you still seeing something of his great worth?

Are you still being endeared by him, to him?

Knowing that sin will lead to sorrow, to be near him is safest for every one of us.

And I am increasingly convinced that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

And that to be with him and to enjoy him and satisfied in him is when we're given an armor that makes us less at risk to the devil's seducing powers and schemes.

And so the question remains, what if in all of this we find ourselves to have journeyed down that path of pain?

Is there any hope for us then?

I would say this: take heart by taking one more glimpse at Peter's tears.

If you look to the tears of Peter, what do we see?

We see a heart that, though bruised, doesn't throw stones at himself, but we get a glimpse of an act of faith.

A heart whose remorse isn't merely for the sin itself, but weeps and mounts over the heart and the love that it betrayed.

This week I've been led to shed my own tears once again at the foot of the cross.

My own blindness and darkness that remains in my own soul.

My own pride in offending love.

Because we're reminded here that the real battle is in the small and in the ordinary things of life.

Most often the war is won or lost in the small and the ordinary.

And so I've come to see more of my own pride and the way in which I offend love itself.

But in this place is a place of glorious new beginnings.

Where weeping turns into wonder.

To be clear-eyed once again, to see the glorious light of a divine heart.

So bound to my own, that even where sin abounds, grace superabounds.

So as spring arises from winter, so does grace meet us with the freshness of renewed hope, the joy of an even deeper apprehension of his love.

And a new song.

And so I don't know when I've wept more or been more joyful than when I've been at the foot of the cross.

Once again dazzled by the beauty and the wonder of the self-given glory.

A glory given for you, a glory given to me to see, behold, and rejoice in.

Let us pray.

We thank you for your mercies.

Lord, even now we praise you and we give you thanks for a love that would shine through the thickness, the darkness, the arrogance of our own pride, and would give us to see the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ.

Oh God, we praise you and thank you for the ability to be given to see a love that is of a divine nature, directed to us, given to us, given for us.

And Lord, we ask, we pray, would you give us to see even greater depths?

Lord, give us the kind of humility that gets out of the way, that sees you clearly, that pushes aside all of the pride of life that can get in the way and obscure the glory that you have clearly revealed.

And give us to see humbly and in this lowly place a renewed sense of your majesty, your faithfulness, your self-giving love.

Oh Lord, we ask, we pray, meet us with more of this.

And so, Lord, we ask and we pray for these things.

And we ask and do pray, Lord, hear also now our own personal confessions.

In light of this glory that you have given us to see, the love of which you have bestowed upon us.

Hear now our own confessions, Lord, as we come before your table.

Thank you, Lord.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.