Mark 14:66-72

Please open up your copy of God's Word to the Gospel according to Mark.

! We're in chapter 14.

We're continuing our verse-by-verse exposition through Mark's Gospel.

! Before we get there, I had intended to make an announcement at the beginning, but I was kind of getting some conflicted reports.

Those of you who have been around for a while know that this building has some water issues.

We're on a well, and sometimes the water doesn't work so well.

Don't pun intended.

And this seems to be one of those mornings for us, and so it wasn't working, and then it was working, and again, now it seems to not be working.

And most of us have dealt with that before, so it seems to be kind of working at the moment.

So, just as a heads-up for whatever you may want to go do in the building concerning water,

to be aware that it may or may not work at the moment that you try.

But, I'm glad that the reason that our church exists is for the supremacy of Christ and not for the beauty of a building.

As we have issues like this, it's just my constant recitation in my head,

but we have no debt, but we have no debt, but we have no debt, and we praise God for that.

So, it is a blessing to us.

Our text for today is Mark chapter 14, verses 66 through 72.

Mark 14:66–72

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 are 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 wept.

This is God's word to us, written for his glory and our good.

We would all do well to listen to it in order to obey its promises,

excuse me, believe its promises, and obey its commands.

Let's pray together.

Father, we again praise you for this morning and the opportunity for us to come together as a church.

A people called out of the world and called together for your mission.

We thank you, Father, that you have not left us alone,

but you have given to us a helper, the Spirit,

and you have given us your word,

the tool that he employs in our lives to shape us and change us for your glory.

And so we would ask this day that you would do this,

that he would be alive and active in my speaking and in all of our hearing.

That the things that we hear today will not merely be taken into our minds,

but they will be applied to our hearts.

That all of us will be changed from one degree of glory to another.

That we will leave this place proclaiming the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness

and into his marvelous light.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

So in our text this morning,

Mark records for us the failure of Peter following Jesus' arrest,

just as Jesus had predicted.

But before we address Peter's failure, and we will,

let's recall together the failure of our author of the Gospel of Mark.

I know that many of you weren't with us when we first began working through this Gospel account.

And in the very first sermon that we worked through together,

I told you a little bit about who Mark is.

And he's an interesting character,

and there's much for us to learn and to be encouraged by his life.

So with me, if you will, just for a brief break from Mark,

you can mark it, no pun intended, once again,

turn to the book of Acts,

and we're going to begin in chapter 12.

Apparently when I'm tired I speak in puns.

We did this once before, so I'm going to do it rather quickly,

but I just want you to see this together.

I believe that Mark's desire to record what Peter did is fueled by his own experience.

So Acts chapter 12, verses 1 through 5.

Acts 12:1–5

About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

He killed James, the brother of John, with a sword.

And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

This was during the days of unleavened bread.

And when he had seized him, he put him in prison,

delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him,

intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

So Peter was kept in prison,

but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

So Peter is imprisoned by his faith.

The persecution of the churches is really on the upswing at this time.

And as the church is praying for him,

Peter is delivered from prison by an angel later there in Acts 12.

Peter recognizes it was an angel.

Verse 12 records this for us of the Lord that led him out of prison.

And it says, verse 12,

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John,

whose other name was Mark,

where many were gathered together and were praying.

And so this is the Mark that wrote the gospel of Mark,

or we could call him John Mark if we would like.

I'm Joseph Nathan, if you don't know that.

And I go by Nathan.

So here we have John Mark going by Mark in many cases.

I'll go a little further in that chapter to verse 25.

And Barnabas and Saul, soon to be Paul, or was Paul at this time,

returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service,

bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

So they picked up a companion in their travels,

and this is John Mark,

who's now traveling with Barnabas and Saul or Paul.

Acts 3, verses 1-5.

Acts 3:1–5

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers,

Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger,

Lucius of Cyrene,

Menaion, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch,

and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting,

the Holy Spirit said,

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying,

they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit,

they went down to Seleucia,

and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis,

they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews,

and they had John to assist them.

So Barnabas and Paul set aside for a work to the Gentiles.

Of course, they still visited the Jewish synagogues and preached to the Jews,

and John Mark is with them.

Now in verse 13 of chapter 13,

in case you lost where we were at.

Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos

and came to Perga in Pamphylia.

And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

So John Mark goes with them on this journey,

the beginning of it,

and as they're about to go on to another stage,

he leaves and returns to Jerusalem.

In the account so far,

that's all we know.

Just that he left.

We don't know why he left,

but we find out later the very reason.

Turn a couple of chapters over to Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And after some days,

Paul said to Barnabas,

Let us return and visit the brothers in every city

where we proclaim the word of the Lord

and see how they are.

This is Acts 15.37 now.

Now Barnabas wanted to take with them

John called Mark.

He's actually the cousin of Barnabas.

But Paul thought best not to take with them

one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia

and had not gone with them to the work.

And there arose a sharp disagreement

so that they separated from each other.

Barnabas took Mark with him

and sailed away to Cyprus.

And this is when Paul picks up Silas in his journey.

So there becomes a division between Paul and Barnabas

because Barnabas really wanted John and Mark

to go with them on the journey.

But Paul said, No, he abandoned us.

He bailed out on us.

This man was fickle.

Likely due to fear of the advance

and the preaching of the gospel

and the things that were happening in his time,

he went back to Jerusalem.

And Paul wants nothing to do with him

at this point in his journey.

Barnabas so convinced,

Barnabas seems to be the second chance guy,

John Mark is now ready,

that he goes with him.

We don't know exactly where

Barnabas disappears from the New Testament narrative

for two years,

with nothing about the timeline,

for two whole years after this incident.

John Mark disappears from the biblical text

for ten years.

But he does reappear.

He reemerges.

Now after some time,

Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel.

And during his first imprisonment,

he writes his letter to the Ephesians,

his letter to the Colossians,

the letter to Philemon,

and to the Philippians.

And we see in two of those,

particularly in Colossians and in Philemon,

Paul's companion in prison

is none other than John Mark.

So they, by some circumstance,

have rejoined one another

and either been thrown in prison together

or found each other once again in prison.

In Paul's second imprisonment,

one of his last letters he wrote,

2 Timothy 4.11,

he writes this,

Do your best to come to me soon,

writing to Timothy,

for Demas, in love with his present world,

has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Crescens has gone to Galatia.

Titus to Dalmatia.

Luke alone is with me.

And then the instruction he gives to Timothy

is get Mark.

This is John Mark he's referring to.

Get Mark and bring him with you,

for he is very useful to me for ministry.

So we see this young disciple

that's taken on this journey to begin with

and bails out on the Gospel mission,

likely for fear of what would happen to him,

now re-engaged in Gospel ministry

in a major way as a fellow servant

along with Paul,

later pinning for us

the Gospel account that we've so richly enjoyed

over this past year.

The redemption that is pictured in this

that has to be pieced together,

but yet we find it all the same.

Sinners and recovering sinners

are the only type of people that there are.

So there's much space for us this day

in even considering Peter's denials.

We think about Mark's life,

and later Peter's life,

the things that will be accomplished

by God through him

to reflect upon our own lives

and the ways in which we've failed our Lord.

The ways we've turned our back on Him.

The ways that we have denied Him

to receive joy and encouragement

from the lives of Mark and of Peter.

Now in last week's text,

Mark places Peter in the courtyard of the house

where Jesus' trial is occurring

on the night of His arrest.

And if you'll look back in Mark 14,

Mark 14:53

verse 53 and 54 reads,

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 other disciples,

it would seem,

have already fled at this time.

We have no record,

no account of them.

Although John's Gospel account

does tell us that the way

that Peter got into the courtyard

is that John was known

by the family of the high priest.

So it's likely that John went along

and said,

Hey, it's okay to let him in.

But it would seem that John's already

left the scene at this point.

The disciples fleeing is a fulfillment

of Zechariah 13.7,

the last half anyway,

which Jesus quotes in Mark 14.7,

Strike the shepherd and the sheep

will be scattered.

So we find Peter having followed at a distance,

having been so bold in the Garden of Gethsemane

that he strikes the ear off of one of the temple guard,

rebuked by Jesus for it.

And then he follows from afar,

wants to be near what's going on.

And this trial is taking place

in the home of the high priest,

which is Caiaphas in this year.

Likely also the home of Annas,

also called the high priest.

He is Caiaphas' father-in-law.

That title never passed away from someone

once they served in the role of high priest.

And Annas is kind of like

the godfather of the Sanhedrin.

He has been appointing high priest.

People do what Annas says.

So there's been a trial before Annas,

which is not recorded in Mark.

And then he's been delivered from Annas,

Jesus has,

to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.

This would be 70 men plus the one

being the high priest.

71 men that hold this sort of trial,

this perversion of justice.

We talked about last week.

We saw the contradiction,

the juxtaposition of the false witnesses

against Jesus' faithful witness

to who he was.

And this is where we find,

as this is happening upstairs

in one of the apartments

of this massive home,

Peter's sitting in the courtyard,

warming himself with the temple guard

around a fire.

John MacArthur says of Peter,

he was caught between fear and faith.

He was caught between love and terror,

between courage and cowardice.

Certainly, Peter loved our Lord

and followed Him because of that.

There's some zeal in Peter

that we certainly should admire,

that he even was willing

to follow that far,

that he was willing to sit outside

in the very home,

enter through a gate,

and be in that place.

But yet he fails.

Now remember who we're talking about,

this Peter.

Back in Mark 8,

beginning of verse 27,

Mark records,

And Jesus went on with His disciples

to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

And on the way,

He asked His disciples,

Who do people say that I am?

And they told Him,

John the Baptist.

And others say,

Elijah.

And others,

one of the prophets.

And He asked them,

But who do you say that I am?

And it's Peter that answers Him,

You are the Christ.

And in saying that,

that phrase that He's saying,

He is saying that you are the Son of God.

You are the Messiah,

the One that has come to take away

the sins of the world.

Our prophet, our priest,

and our King.

You are the Christ.

Matthew's account adds,

And Jesus answers him,

Blessed are you,

Simon Barjona,

for flesh and blood

has not revealed this to you,

but my Father,

who is in heaven.

So,

God Himself has revealed this truth

to Peter.

And I tell you,

you are Peter.

And on this rock,

I will build my church.

And the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it.

The truth that Jesus is the Christ,

is the rock that He'll build His church on.

He says,

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,

and whenever you bind on earth,

shall be bound in heaven.

And whenever you loose on earth,

shall be loose in heaven.

This is the Peter

that we're talking about.

And so,

set against the backdrop

of Peter's bold proclamation

of Jesus as the Christ,

Mark tells us of his failure

on the night of Jesus' arrest.

Charles Spurgeon wrote of this text,

This fall of Peter

is doubtless intended

to be a lesson

to the whole church of Christ.

It is recorded for our learning

that we may be kept

from like sorrowful overthrow.

It is a beacon

mercifully set up in Scripture

to prevent others

making shipwreck.

So we must pay attention.

It's important that we stop and look,

not just as a mark in Peter's life,

but what are we meant

to learn and to understand?

We must understand

by this record.

And to do that,

we must examine the condition

of Peter's heart,

which ultimately led

to these denials.

You see,

there must have been something

at work in him

to cause him to betray his Lord, right?

He wasn't on top of the mountain

and suddenly in the valley

there was something happening in him

and we have record

and account of what that was.

Remember that Peter had given up

everything to follow Christ.

He had sacrificed everything

and he'd been with him now

three plus years

bringing him to this point.

What is happening

in the heart of Peter

that would cause him

to deny Christ

at this time?

There are at least three things

we should observe.

At least.

There may be more,

but at least three things

we should observe

that we're going to do this morning

lest we also fail

in this way.

Firstly,

and primarily,

Peter was prideful.

Peter was self-sufficient

in his own mind.

None of us really are self-sufficient.

All of us are sustained

by the power of God.

All of us are very, very, very finite

and so desperately in need

of an infinite God.

Peter didn't recognize

this was the case.

He was prideful.

Mark 14, 26-31 says,

And when they had sung a hymn,

they went out to the Mount of Olives.

And Jesus said to them,

You will all fall away.

For it is written,

this is from Zechariah,

I will strike the shepherd

and the sheep will be scattered.

But after I am raised up,

I will go before you to Galilee.

Peter said to him,

listen to the words

that Peter responds to Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

by His own admission,

has said,

You will all fall away.

This will come to pass.

And Peter responds 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.

But He said emphatically,

If I must die with you,

I will not deny you.

And they all said the same.

You see the pride there.

Jesus is telling them

the very thing that will come to pass.

And He's having nothing of it.

Not believing His Lord

and the prediction that He's giving to Him.

This man has seen Jesus accomplish

amazing things.

He has established His authority

over sickness.

He's established His authority over death.

He's raised people from the dead.

He's calmed storms with His voice.

He has forgiven sin.

Amazing.

Amazing things.

And He says a simple thing to Him.

And He is so full of Himself.

He is so arrogant

and so self-sufficient

that He says,

I will not.

I will not deny you.

Are we not this way so often?

Proverbs 16.

Proverbs 16.

18 says,

Pride goes before destruction

and a haughty spirit

before a fall.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10.

12,

Therefore let anyone

who thinks that he stands

take heed

lest he fall.

Beloved,

we are always

at all times

in desperate need

of the intervening work of God

on our behalf.

There are certainly

times in our life

that this is

exclamart.

I just made that word up.

There is an exclamation mark

placed on this

at times in our lives.

Let me give you a full sentence

to explain what I meant

by exclamart.

Punctuated,

I think is what I was trying to say.

God's providence

reigns at all times.

Moments in our life

were made very,

very aware of this.

Daniel Gentry,

a member of our church,

and I have been

looking toward

and praying for

the possibility

of our church

doing some work

on the east coast

of Nicaragua.

The west coast

of Nicaragua

is the developed

part of Nicaragua.

You can get a direct flight

on Delta

from the Atlanta airport

straight into

the Managua airport.

From there,

the normal way

that you get

to the east coast

is you hop on another flight

to a town called Bluefields.

Then you get on a water taxi

that takes you to

the place that we were going,

a place called Pearl Lagoon.

We decided instead,

we had a trip of four,

there were four of us

planning on going

at the time we did this,

that it would be cool

to rent a truck

and drive

to the town of Pearl Lagoon.

We just wanted to have

some flexibility,

not be so dependent

on other people

to give us rides.

We really wanted to be able

to check out the area.

Our trip of four people

quickly became a trip

of two people.

So Daniel and I

flew into

the Managua airport.

Our flight was very,

very late.

We just happened to catch

the Alamo Rent-A-Car

attendant

as she was locking up.

She was the only employee

that spoke any English

for Alamo Rent-A-Car

and Daniel and I

spoke no Spanish.

We stayed across the street

at the Best Western

that night

and the next day

we struck out

across Nicaragua.

A couple of white guys

from Georgia

who don't speak

any Spanish

in a rented truck.

And I was never

not aware

of God's providence

in that trip,

that we made it.

The Alamo Rent-A-Car

attendant told us

that her mother

lived in Bluefields

and that she had never

heard of a road

that went to the place

where we were going.

There were no maps.

We couldn't buy a map

in the place.

And yet,

God sustained us.

God brought back

some of my high school

Spanish

to ask for directions.

Brought in this town

that seemed to be

the dead end

of our trip.

Brought into

in a bizarre way

one English speaker

who used to live

in Roswell, Georgia.

And he gave us

directions to where

we were going.

We are always,

the point I'm making,

we are always,

always, always

in need of him.

Sometimes we know it

more than others,

but we are always

in need.

We never should

be prideful.

I will not,

by the grace of God,

should be the cry

of our hearts.

So Peter was prideful.

Secondly,

Peter failed

to heed the word

of God.

This was fueled

by that very pride,

but Peter failed

to heed

the word

of God.

Jesus had said

to him,

this thing

will come

to pass.

And he doesn't

respond with a,

how do I prevent

that?

You told me a thing

that I will do,

but how can I

not do this?

While Peter's

denials validate

the prophetic

words of Christ,

they certainly serve

in that regard,

prophecy does serve

as a warning.

We shouldn't just say,

oh, well that's

going to happen.

Prophecy is a warning.

And Peter would have

done very well

to pay attention

to it.

When Jonah preached

the word of God

to the Ninevites,

Jonah 3.4 says,

yet forty days

and Nineveh

shall be overthrown.

This was the message

that God had given

to Jonah

to preach

to the whole city

of Nineveh.

What did they do?

They repented.

They turned

from their sin

and they repented.

And Jonah 3.10

records,

when God saw

what they did,

how they turned

from their evil way,

God relented

of the disaster

that He had said

He would do to them

and He did not do it.

So,

brings a prophecy

that they respond

appropriately to

and He doesn't do

the thing

that He said

He would do.

Proverbs 6.23

says,

For the commandment

is a lamp

and the teaching

a light.

And the reproofs

of discipline

are the way

of life.

Our last memory verse,

children,

I'll leave you away.

2 Timothy 3.16

All Scripture

is breathed out

by God

and profitable

for teaching,

for reproof,

for correction,

and for training

in righteousness.

Verse 17

goes on to say

that the man of God

may be complete,

equipped

for every good work.

Peter would have done well

to listen to the words

of Christ,

to have paid attention

to the warning

that He was giving to him

and we do the same.

The Scriptures contain

many warnings.

Let's look at just a few.

What do you say?

Turn with me

to the book of Hebrews.

I'm going to show you

four warnings

just from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews.

Hebrews.

Hebrews.

We don't know

with certainty

who wrote

the book of Hebrews,

but we do know

that it was written

to Jewish Christians

who were tempted

to deny Christ.

In their minds,

they had added Jesus

to their religion.

They're still worshipping

the same God,

but they had included Jesus

into this equation.

We're following Him.

And things had gotten

tough for them.

The Jews weren't being

persecuted the way they were.

The Jews weren't being

thrown in prison.

The Jews weren't having

their property plundered.

The Jews weren't being killed.

So it's tempting

to go back to Judaism

to deny Christ in this way.

So let's just look

at a few together.

Hebrews 2.1

The danger of drifting.

The writer of Hebrews says,

Therefore we must pay

much closer attention

to what we have heard

lest we drift away from it.

We must pay attention

to the gospel preached.

We must know

the word of God.

Because if we don't know,

we won't know

when we drift.

It will be imperceivable.

Like a ship without an anchor

and suddenly we're out

in the dangerous sea.

Secondly,

Hebrews 3.12

The danger of not

entering into rest,

the rest of the Lord.

Take care, brothers,

lest there be in any of you

an evil, unbelieving heart

leading you to fall away

from the living God.

Be careful, he's saying.

Be careful that you don't exist

within the church

thinking that you have a good heart

when in fact you have

an evil heart

that's leading you away from God

and not toward Him.

Be careful that you're not

just going through

some religious practice

thinking that somehow

that's credited to you

as righteousness.

But that you need

the righteousness of Christ.

Thirdly,

Hebrews 6.11-12

The danger of not going on

to maturity.

Of staying a child

in the faith.

And we desire each one of you

to show the same earnestness

to have the full assurance of hope

until the end.

So that you may not be sluggish

but imitators of those

who through faith and patience

inherit the promises.

Don't be deceived

thinking that you can just

stay nominal.

That it's okay to make

a profession of faith in Christ

and never grow up in Him.

Those who are born again

grow up in Jesus.

We become mature.

There's a danger in not going on

to maturity.

Fourthly and lastly,

Hebrews 10.26-27

The danger of willful sin.

For if we go on sinning deliberately

after receiving the knowledge

of the truth,

there no longer remains

a sacrifice for sins

but a fearful expectation

of judgment

and a fury of fire

that will consume the adversaries.

What he's saying is

if you are a believer,

you claim to be a believer

and you continue to sin deliberately,

you are denying Christ

in that activity.

You are saying

there's not a sacrifice for sin,

there's only a judgment

that will come.

Heed these warnings, beloved.

We must heed the warnings

of the Scripture.

There are so many places,

not just Hebrews,

so many places,

where we are warned against

and warned against

and warned against.

The Christian life is not easy.

Our flesh is at war

with our spirit.

If we are truly believers,

our flesh does not win.

The general trajectory of our life

will be towards holiness

and away from worldliness.

This must be true

in our lives, beloved.

If it's not true in yours,

you must question your faith.

Test yourselves.

I never want to say any of this

to cause those who are Christians

to ever falter in their belief.

The Scriptures exhort us

to test ourselves.

Are you in the faith?

Can you with confidence say,

my heart is changed.

There are things happening in my life

that would not be happening

if it were not for the work of Christ.

Jesus is purging sin from my life.

And I still sin,

but it breaks my heart.

I sympathize.

I want to be there with Peter

when he breaks down and weeps

and go, I know.

Oh, I know.

Me too.

Oh, how I fail.

But test yourself

that you know you're in the faith.

That you know that God is working you

towards holiness.

So many these days want to have

the promises of the Scripture,

but they do not want to obey

its commands.

I flubbed it up this morning.

I keep goofing things up.

It's okay.

But most mornings when we study together

after reading the text,

I say to you,

this is God's Word to us.

It's written for His glory

and our good.

We would know that,

that it's for our good.

We would all do well to listen to it

in order to believe its promises

and obey its commands.

Peter was prideful.

Peter did not listen to,

he did not heed the Word of God.

If he had, thirdly,

he would have prepared himself.

He would have prepared himself

for the thing that was going to come,

the battle,

as he was going to walk following Jesus,

caught between these two places,

his love for Christ

and his fear of what might happen to him.

And so thirdly,

Peter failed to prepare himself

for battle.

Turn back to Mark 14, verse 32.

Mark 14:32

After the Last Supper,

Jesus and the disciples leave,

verse 32,

and they went to a place called Gethsemane.

The Garden of Gethsemane.

This is the night of Jesus' rest,

and He says to His disciples,

Sit here while I pray.

And He took with them Peter and James and John

and began to be greatly distressed

and troubled.

And He said to them,

My soul is very sorrowful,

even to death.

Remain here and watch.

And going a little farther,

He fell on the ground and prayed

that if it were possible,

the hour might pass from Him.

And He said,

Abba, Father,

all things are possible for You.

Remove this cup from Me,

yet not what I will,

but what You will.

And He came and found them sleeping.

And He said to Peter,

Simon,

are you asleep?

Could you not watch one hour?

Watch and pray

that you may not enter into temptation.

The Spirit indeed is willing,

but the flesh is weak.

Now, who's He talking to specifically?

To Peter, right?

The one who He had said,

You will deny.

All of you will be scattered.

And Peter says,

I will not.

He says,

You will deny Me three times.

He says,

Oh no, I won't.

And then He's sleeping in the garden.

And Jesus' exhortation to Him

is that He should be watching and praying

so that He won't enter into temptation

because His Spirit's willing.

Oh, I will.

I won't.

I won't.

I won't.

But His flesh is weak.

Verse 39,

And again He, Jesus,

went away and prayed,

saying the same words.

And again He came and found them sleeping,

for their eyes were very heavy,

and they did not know what to answer Him.

And He came the third time and said to them,

Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

It is enough.

The hour has come.

Peter,

had he rightly understood

what Jesus had said,

if He had heeded His warning,

had he not been so prideful,

he would have been preparing himself

for the battle that he was about to face.

And he failed to do so.

And so we see in our text,

and I know that today was kind of a wander

from the text,

and we'll come back to it for a moment,

the three denials.

And they all happen right there together.

A servant girl recognizes Him.

Right?

She again points out the fact,

no, I'm pretty sure,

telling some bystanders,

pretty sure this guy was with Jesus.

And notice that he's left the gate now.

He's away from the temple guard.

He's gone outside of the gate.

Likely still lingering outside,

waiting to see what will happen to Christ.

And his responses get more and more severe.

Leave me alone about it.

Leave me alone.

I do not know this man.

I am not to be associated with him.

And then Peter remembers

what Jesus has said to him,

and he breaks down,

and he weeps.

That next day,

the same,

the morning,

this is happening.

It's the reason that the rooster's crowing.

It's morning now.

There's going to be some other trials.

Another trial before the Jews,

just really for show.

Some trials,

three of them in front of the Gentiles.

We'll get into those things

in the coming weeks.

And then Jesus will be crucified

that afternoon.

And this is the way in which

the closing remarks for Peter

before our Lord is crucified.

Do you sympathize with Him?

Can you feel His pain in that?

Ways in which you yourself

have denied Christ.

Opportunity to speak on His behalf

in this world as an ambassador for Him

that you shrank away from.

Like Him,

you cowered.

I don't know Him.

I don't know Him.

Don't think me strange.

Don't think me weird.

Don't hate me for my faith.

I sympathize with Him.

And praise God,

Peter is restored.

Praise God,

Peter is restored.

Turn to John 21.

After Jesus' resurrection,

He comes and He has breakfast

with seven of the apostles

by the Sea of Tiberias.

John 21,

beginning in verse 15,

says,

When they had finished breakfast,

Jesus said to Simon Peter,

Simon, son of John,

do you love Me more than these?

He said to him,

Yes, Lord,

you know that I love you.

He said to him,

Feed My lambs.

He said to him a second time,

Simon, son of John,

do you love Me?

He said to him,

Yes, Lord,

you know that I love you.

He said to him,

Tend My sheep.

He said to him the third time,

Simon, son of John,

do you love Me?

Peter was grieved

because he had said to him

the third time,

Do you love Me?

And he said to him,

Lord,

you know everything.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him,

Feed My sheep.

Truly, truly,

I say to you,

when you were young,

you used to dress yourself

and walk wherever you wanted.

But when you were old,

you will stretch out your hands

and another will dress you

and carry you

where you do not want to go.

This he said to show

by what kind of death

he was to glorify God.

And after saying this,

he said to him,

Follow Me.

And you note that Jesus gives Peter

three opportunities

to affirm his love for Him.

Just as he has denied Him three times,

he takes them through a process

of saying to Him,

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

And then Jesus tells him

exactly what's going to happen to him.

That He is going to be crucified

like our Lord was.

He Himself will die

such a terrible death.

The thing that He was so afraid of

on this night

where He betrays Christ,

where He denies Him these three times,

Jesus tells him,

this is the way that you will also die.

And in spite of that,

Peter would soon speak boldly

to the very men

who had judged Jesus.

Like a lion he speaks to them.

Turn one more time.

Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

It's the last place I'll have you.

And we're wrapping up here.

I haven't banged on a lectern once.

I promise you I would do that.

Wake up.

Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Verse 5.

It's after the day of Pentecost.

On the next day,

their rulers and elders and scribes

gathered together in Jerusalem

with Annas the high priest

and Caiaphas and John and Alexander,

all who were of the high priestly family.

So all of those five and six,

all of those people are Sanhedrin.

It's the same people that judge

perverted justice in their judgment of Jesus.

Verse 7.

And when they had set them in the midst,

they inquired,

By what power or by what name

do you do this?

Then Peter,

filled with the Holy Spirit,

the source of his great boldness,

said to them,

Rulers of the people and elders,

if we are being examined today

concerning a good deed

done to a crippled man,

by what means this man has been healed,

let it be known to all of you

and to all the people of Israel

that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

whom you crucified,

whom God raised from the dead,

by him this man is standing before you well.

You notice that he calls him Jesus of Nazareth?

The very accusation made to him.

Weren't you with Jesus the Nazarene?

Here he says,

you're darn right I was.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Verse 11,

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you,

the builders,

which has become the cornerstone,

and there is salvation in no one else,

for there is no other name under heaven

given among men,

by which we must be saved.

The boldness as he's filled with the Spirit,

the way in which his life has been redeemed,

such a low point,

now brought just a couple of months later

to such a high point in his service to our King.

And I think many of us find ourselves

in the place of Peter,

having seen that in some way,

in some regard,

our life does not reflect our love

and devotion to our Lord.

We serve things that are so shabby,

so worthless,

so fading away,

when we have Christ.

In so many varied ways,

we deny Him.

Let me encourage you,

if you are found in Him,

Paul writes in Philippians 1.6,

And I am sure of this,

that He who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion

at the day of Jesus Christ.

Praise God.

Romans 8,

There is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so the call to us is to repent

and believe.

That is,

to take up the precious truths of the Gospel

as we find ourselves failing Jesus

in all of the ways that we do.

And to praise Him,

that it is His righteousness

that's been given to us.

Counted to our credit.

When God sees us,

He sees Christ.

And beloved,

this should be motivating to us.

This should move us

to share Him with the world.

This should move us

to rearrange our lives,

to give up our self-determination

to experience,

proclaim,

and display Him

in all things

to all peoples.

Let's pray together.