Facing Crisis

Well, good morning.

It's good to be with you all.

How are you?

No, really.

How are you?

I wish you were here to be able to give me feedback, but it's more of a loaded question

these days, isn't it?

I hear answers.

I'm surviving, managing, learning new routines, new ways of living, trying to figure out for

me how to clean, how to schedule activities for my kids, what to feed them for lunch now

that school lunches are no longer taken care of.

Lots of little details and new things that I'm managing.

But more than that, we're also facing greater challenges, are we not?

Some of us feel isolated.

Some of us are sick, and not even with the virus, but facing other illnesses.

And we're afraid.

Some of us are facing financial strain, anxiety about our jobs.

The circumstances that we are in could be called a crucible.

If you've never seen a crucible, it's actually a ceramic cup.

It's about this big.

And what it is, is it's something that's meant to hold a precious metal, particularly something

like gold, that would then be heated up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The crucible holds it, and the heat brings pressure to bear on the metal with the purpose of purifying

it by revealing the impurities and then burning them away.

And when the heat is turned up, when the pressure is on us, how are you doing?

What do you see in your own responses in the last week or two to all these challenges?

And more pointedly, how have you engaged or not engaged in your spiritual life these days?

Are you running to God?

Or do you find yourself abandoning God in the midst of a crisis?

It is this that our passage turns us to today.

We are continuing in our series in the book of Luke.

We're going to be in Luke chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

We are coming near to the very end of his life.

As Luke narrates the story, he is ramping up towards the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Last week, Pastor Nick reminded us and taught us from Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,

saying, not my will, but thine be done, and his betrayal and arrest.

And this week, the camera shift shifts from Jesus to the Apostle Peter

and how Peter will respond to the crucible of his moment.

So, let's look at Luke chapter 22, starting in verse 54.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

Let's read this together.

Then they seized him, that would be Jesus,

they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house.

And Peter was following at a distance.

And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together,

Peter sat down among them.

Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said,

this man also was with him.

But he denied it, saying, woman, I do not know him.

And a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them.

But Peter said, man, I am not.

And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying,

certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.

But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about.

And immediately, while he was speaking, the cock crowed.

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said of him, before the cock crows today,

you will deny me three times.

And he went out and wept bitterly.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for your word and how it is a comfort and a challenge to our lives.

The way that it helps to redirect our attention.

Lord, not only the thoughts of our minds, but the things that we love and the ways that we act.

We pray this morning that you would be with us and help us.

Lord, we pray that your word would speak to our hearts this morning.

That your spirit, Lord, would be at work in us.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

How do we respond in the crucible?

We're going to look at this passage and look at it in three parts.

We're going to look at Peter's story.

We'll look at our story.

And then we're going to look at how Jesus meets us in the crucible of crisis.

So first, let's look at Peter's story.

It's a fairly straightforward one.

There's not a lot of confusion here about what happens.

Jesus has been arrested.

He's led astray into the high priest's house.

The house would probably be a typical house in that day.

It would have an outer courtyard and a gate that would come in.

And there would be a courtyard outside of the buildings.

And in that outside, there would be a place for crowds to gather, for visitors to gather.

And because it was night, they would have had a fire lit in that area.

And as Jesus is brought in and through, we see the apostle Peter following at a distance.

It may be that he was doing this bravely.

For he alone, it seems, of the disciples, continued to follow Jesus rather than fleeing when he was arrested.

And yet he did it from a distance.

He was afraid, uncertain about how much to identify with Jesus and how close to get to him.

And so in the house, he sits down with the other people around this fire.

And one of the women sitting there, one of the women sitting there looks at him and says,

Aren't you with that guy they just arrested?

Peter's response is strong.

I do not know him, woman.

He interjects that woman in there to emphasize, I don't know him.

He abandons any association with Jesus in that moment.

And another man right afterward says,

Well, no, aren't you one of them?

Aren't you a part of that group that was with that man?

And again, man, I do not know what you're talking about.

He abandons association with Jesus' followers as well.

And then an hour later, and as we put all the gospel stories together,

it seems that this had now progressed through the night,

and we're coming towards dawn this hour later.

Maybe Peter had hoped that they'd forgotten those comments.

Maybe they thought he could slip in there unknown.

But he'd also had time to think for an hour about the fact that he just disassociated himself

with Jesus and abandoned him.

And another man comes, and he looks at him.

And in the text it says, another certain man.

He looked at him, and he insisted,

No, you are one of those.

You were with him.

For you're a Galilean.

From the region up in the north where Jesus came from

and where his disciples had come from.

You are with him, aren't you?

And Peter pulls the greatest denial that we have all done at some time.

When someone has said something to us and called us out,

and we don't want to admit to it.

Man, you are crazy.

I don't know what you're talking about.

The greatest defense from a guilty heart.

Peter abandons Jesus in that moment.

He's afraid.

That fear is like the fire.

The fire of the crucible that burns, reveals his impurities, and shows his weakness.

Do you remember what Peter had said?

We read this just a few weeks ago.

You can look at it in your Bible, verse 33 of chapter 22.

Peter said to Jesus,

Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

Jesus had said this trial would come.

He said he would pray for Peter.

And Peter said,

You don't need to pray for me, Jesus.

I've got this.

I'm already with you.

But here's his chance

to show his true loyalty.

And he fails.

Miserably.

Three times.

With time to think about it, even.

He denies Jesus by distancing himself.

I don't know him.

I don't know them.

I'm not one of them.

I don't know what you're talking about.

The crisis revealed Peter

not to be who he hoped he would be,

but to be who he really was.

So that's Peter's story.

And it's a tragic one.

And it's a sobering one.

What about us?

How are we responding to the crisis of our day?

The heat is being turned up in our crucible, is it not?

And are we running to God,

or are we abandoning him?

Look, we face something that's been not faced

in this whole generation, maybe in a century.

There's a real danger what's going on with us.

There's a real danger of getting a virus.

There's a real fear of dying.

There's a real fear,

not only for ourselves in our own life,

but also for the lives of those that we love,

for ones both near and far,

that we want to protect,

that we want to care for,

and we don't know how.

There are real fears in this present moment.

There are also real losses

connected already with the effect of this pandemic

on our lives.

Some have already lost jobs.

Many more likely will.

You've lost financial stability.

You've lost income.

You worry about whether you'll be able to stay

in the home you live in,

how you will feed yourself and your family.

We've not only lost financial stability,

we've lost social milestones

that become so important.

Birthdays and graduations have been canceled.

Weddings have been put off or done alone.

And funerals have been canceled

or done with only the closest members.

These are not recoverable milestones.

They are real losses.

And we've lost connection too.

We lose the necessary fabric

of the love of people around us,

the importance of physical touch.

We're separated from our families,

from our classmates,

from our church family,

from our friends.

And in the reality of this,

the fire heats up.

And it shows the impurities of our hearts,

doesn't it?

Or to change the metaphor,

the pressure of our circumstances

squeezes us like a toothpaste tube.

It doesn't make what's inside.

It just merely lets what's inside

get squeezed out so everyone can see it.

So what comes out of me in a time like this?

Well,

often it's not what I hoped I would be,

but it is what I really am.

This week I've recognized that I have a mode

that I have developed

of how to survive in crisis.

It's to hunker down,

batten down the hatches,

throw all the unnecessary things out of my life,

and to just survive.

And you know,

there may be some wisdom in some of those things.

I want to manage well.

I want to develop good strategies.

But I know in my heart,

I don't do that by turning to God

and allowing Him to be my refuge

as I batten down the hatches.

It's more my New England bones,

pulling up my bootstraps,

protecting myself

with a deep fear

that no one else will take care of me,

no one else will protect me,

and it's up to me

to do it all.

That's what I've seen in my own heart.

And do you know what happens?

I have these little warning lights

that come up on my dashboard of my life.

Irritability.

I find myself impatient,

easily angered,

growing in my frustration with little things.

When life doesn't work right,

I find my fuse is very short.

I also know that for some of us,

withdrawal will be a major warning line.

We may sleep all day.

We may run to our addictions,

whether they be social media or narcotics,

whether they be pornography or Netflix.

We abandon ourselves into these things

to withdraw from the challenges ahead

that we face.

Some of us may be prone

to have a warning sign of frantic activity.

My kids are at home.

I have to be the perfect Pinterest parent

and have a 14-point plan for my kids

every day of what they're going to do.

Some of us,

our frantic activity is cleaning the house

and finding something else to do

to distract ourselves from the challenges

that we face.

Some of us spend all of our time on social media.

What's the latest news release?

What's the latest update?

What is that counter that keeps going up and up and up

about the number of people affected by this virus?

And we incessantly obsess

and frantically take hold of these things.

These are warning signs

of our heart.

Instead of running to God,

we often run to other things.

We run to these things

that are not always bad things,

but when we make them

the ultimate things in our lives,

they are in fact

an abandonment of God.

What are some of these things?

We might become consumed

with our health and safety.

And so in doing so,

we become committed

to protecting ourselves

and we lose

our love for our neighbor,

our ability to think about

anyone but ourselves.

When we make this

our number one priority,

we abandon God

who is the author of life

and of death

and who has numbered our days.

We want to control that

rather than trusting in Him.

Another thing we might run to

is our productivity.

Some of us struggle

because suddenly

we have to slow down

and we don't like that.

We don't like

not being able to do the work

that we usually do.

And we don't like

the loss of projects

and accomplishments.

We feel exposed

because our self-importance

feels like it's slipping

through our fingers

as we're more and more

unable to do

what we want to do.

When we cling

to that productivity,

we abandon God

who gives us work

not for our meaning

but for His glory.

Some of us love

and in the crisis,

we,

what rises to the top

is competence.

I want to know

how to respond

and manage this situation.

This might be partly

what I love.

Whether it's homeschooling

your kid,

whether it's navigating

new technologies,

you find yourself

constantly driving

to how do I learn?

How do I become competent?

How do I succeed

in all of these things?

Here might be

the dashboard light for you.

Do you spend more time

researching these things

on the internet

than you do

reading your Bible?

We abandon God

who is the God

of all knowledge

and we abandon God

who is able to do

for us

what we are unable

to do for ourselves.

We seek a competence

in ourselves

that deny God

in our lives.

and this leads

very closely

into the next one

which is control.

We love to be in control,

don't we?

We want to be able

to determine

our circumstances,

to be able to

control our outcomes.

I had plans

and they've been

taken out of my hand

and I want to cling

to them

and I find myself

struggling with bitterness

at losing

some of those plans.

But when we cling

to those things

and cling to that desire

for control,

we abandon God

who says,

I know the plans

that I have for you

and they are not

for your destruction

but they're for your good.

Finally,

one of the things

that we've seen

in our culture

and in our own hearts

is that crisis like this

squeeze out

our independence.

I want to do

what I want to do.

I do me,

you do you.

I'm going to go

to spring break

and do that thing.

Many of those kids

have repented

of those statements

since then,

thankfully.

But is it not true

that we all

are reaching those points

where we don't care,

we just want to do

what we want to do.

We don't care

how much it's affected

and we feel

this growing sense

inside of us

that's going to burst out.

If I can't do this,

if I can't do

what I want to do,

I'm going to explode.

And in doing that,

we deny a God

who has loved us

with a great

and sacrificial love

that said,

not my will

but thine be done, God.

our independence

is the very core

of our rejection

of God

and we abandon him

in it.

I hope by exploring

these things,

we might see

that our story

is not so different

from Peter's.

Oh,

we would never admit

that we would just

stand up and say,

oh,

I don't believe

any of that anymore.

But in our actions

and in our hurt attitudes,

how often

have we abandoned God

in this last week?

In the crucible,

I too

abandon him

and act like

I don't know him.

But what does Jesus do

with Peter

and with us?

Look with me

at the passage again.

Verse 61.

The Lord turned

and looked

at Peter.

Now,

we're not quite sure

how this was staged.

Somehow,

Jesus,

maybe he was being walked

from one room

to another.

Maybe there was

an open doorway

that could be seen

in to where Jesus

was being held.

But however it happened,

Jesus,

in that moment,

was able to turn

and look

and make eye contact

with Peter.

And in that look,

Peter was reminded

that Jesus knew

that this was going

to happen.

He had predicted

that he would fail him.

But he had also predicted,

I am going to pray

for you

that you may not

be overcome,

but that you will

stand through this.

And that when you come back

after your failure,

that you will be able

to feed your brothers

and shepherd them.

Jesus' look

was one

that both reminded

Peter

of his sovereign holiness.

I knew

that this was going

to happen, Peter.

I knew your weakness.

I told you

this was going

to happen.

And yet,

his immense

grace

to us.

Peter

abandoned Jesus,

but Jesus

has not abandoned

us.

In fact,

he looks to us

in growing,

in gracious,

and knowing love.

You've heard it said

many times,

Pastor Tim Keller

from New York City,

the gospel is this,

we are more sinful

and flawed

in ourselves

than we ever

dared believe.

We have in the seed

of our hearts

every day

the ability

to abandon

and deny God.

And yet,

at the very

same time,

we are more

loved and accepted

in Jesus Christ

than we ever

dared hope.

You see,

this story

of Peter's failure

doesn't happen

in a vacuum.

It happens

as Jesus

is headed

towards the cross,

which is the greatest

moving

of a holy God

towards people

who don't deserve him.

In fact,

in just the next

chapter,

Jesus will hang

on that cross

and he will cry out,

my God,

my God,

why have you

forsaken me?

Jesus will go

to the cross

and be abandoned

by his Father

to rescue people

like us

who abandoned him.

And this is

the good news

of the gospel,

that even

in our greatest

failures

this week,

even in our

greatest struggles,

Jesus has not

abandoned us.

He goes to the cross

to take the penalty

for our rebellion

and our denial

of him

so that it might

be taken away.

What a rich,

what a beautiful

savior we have

who does this

for us

to rescue us

so that that

failure of Peter's

or that failure

that you've had

this week,

this month,

sometime in your life

does not define you.

But the God

of redemption

has been abandoned

by God for you

so that you might

be abandoned,

so that you might

be redeemed

out of your

abandoning him,

so that you might

be brought back.

To this I hold,

my sin has been

defeated,

Jesus now,

and ever

is my plea.

Oh, the chains

are released,

I can sing

I am free,

yet not I,

but Christ in me.

And friends,

if you're looking

for hope today

because you identify

with Peter

in your failure,

look ahead

to the beginning

of the book of Acts.

Luke doesn't

recount the restoration

that John does

in John 20,

but in Acts,

Luke presents

Peter again and again,

the leader

of the apostles,

the one who preaches

the gospel boldly

on the day of Pentecost,

the one who stands

before the leaders

when he has been

arrested

for following Jesus

and says,

you tell me,

should I obey God

or man?

I am willing

to suffer

and die

for this Jesus

because he suffered

and died

for me.

Let's pray.

Lord,

thank you for

the cross

and the gospel

hope that we have.

Strengthen us today

to face this crucible,

this trial,

this crisis.

Lord,

with the great knowledge

of your faithfulness

to us,

we pray this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.