Peter Denies Jesus // Guest Speaker Edgar Ramos

Thank you guys.

Thank you for the warm welcome.

If you're ready to hear God from God's word today, can I hear an amen?

That's right.

Well, I invite you to open up to the book of John.

We're gonna start off in chapter 13.

And today we're really gonna learn the story of a disciple of Jesus that betrayed him.

We're there's a lot of people in history that you say their name or you show them a picture of them, and we really just have one thing in mind, right?

As we continue on our sermon series of 24, the last 24 hours of the life of Jesus, we're really gonna focus in today on a particular disciple of his.

When you hear Albert Einstein, what types of things come to mind?

Genius, smart, all these things, right?

Yeah, he's a smart guy.

He's a smart guy.

Now this next picture, someone near and dear to my heart.

Actually, two people.

That's right.

We got our Pastor Nay.

That's right.

He got married two days ago to his lovely wife, uh Angela Stone Street now, uh in San Diego.

But when you think of Pastor Nay, what types of things come to your mind?

I'm curious.

We can be honest with each other.

Football, swimming, muscles, all that stuff, right?

Great stuff, great stuff.

Now, this next person, this next person might date me a little bit, honestly.

It might like you might look at me, especially the youngins in the room, might think I'm old now.

Uh, this person was one of my childhood icons, one of my role models when I was a young kid.

That person is none other than Mr.

Rogers.

So when you think Mr.

Rogers, what types of things come to mind?

Patience, sweater, kindness, that's right.

All these types of things, right?

All these positive things.

Now, this next disciple, this next disciple, um, there's not a historical picture of him, but if you watch a chosen, it's gonna be familiar to you.

When you hear the name Judas Iscariot, what types of things come to mind?

Betrayal, fake, backstabber, double crosser, right?

All these words, all these words you just describe this disciple that betrayed Jesus.

And they're harsh words, you know, but for good reason.

What he did was absolutely heinous.

Now, if somebody calls you a Judas Iscariot, those are hurtful words.

Yeah, you don't want to hear that either.

But the night that Jesus was betrayed, he wasn't just betrayed by Judas.

In fact, through all four Gospels, we actually learn of a story of another disciple that betrayed Jesus that night.

He was betrayed by one of his closest friends, not just once, but three times.

We don't associate the name of the disciple with betrayal, though, right?

We don't associate his name with being a backstabber.

We don't associate the name of the apostle Peter with the same words that we use to describe Judas.

But why is that?

Both of them did betray Jesus that same night in that 24 hours, they both equally stabbed Jesus in the back, broke his heart.

Why is that?

Well, I believe this.

That's because we learn that through the way of Jesus, failure isn't final because grace writes a better ending.

And as we learn the ending of these two disciples, both Judas and Peter, I believe we're gonna learn something that's gonna help us out as we deal with our lives today.

The first lesson that we learn through the life of the Apostle Peter is that your strength isn't strong enough.

Your strength isn't strong enough.

Well, the scene is this it's the Last Supper.

Jesus is having a meal with his closest friends, his closest disciples in the upper room.

A lot of us forget that this time wasn't just like a religious ceremony.

It was a Passover Seder.

It was a time when you got your closest friends, your closest people, and you ate with them, you drank with them, right?

He talked with them, he demonstrated that he loved them, that he believed in them, that God was going to do great things in them and through them.

But at the end of the night, Jesus told them that he had to leave them.

And it's at that point in verse 36 of John chapter 13, the Bible tells us, Lord, Simon Peter said to him, Where are you going?

John 13 · chapter mention

And Jesus answered, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.

Verse 37, Lord, Peter asks, Why can't I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.

But Jesus replied, Will you lay down your life for me?

Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.

Peter had confidence, right?

Of course Peter had confidence.

That's that's kind of the thing about Peter.

You don't think betrayer, you don't think you think boldness, you think maybe sometimes even in a negative connotation, that guy he put his foot in his mouth a little too much, right?

But you certainly don't think denial, you don't think betrayer, but Peter right here was saying, look, I would n I would lay down my life for you.

But Jesus replied, Tonight, before the rooster crows, by the time you do that, you're gonna deny me three times.

A lot of people try to like spiritualize it.

I'm like, what's the spiritual significance of the rooster?

It's just it's honestly the rooster crows first thing in the morning, you know, it's the wakes up and he screams.

I can I can relate to that, right?

That's but that's really the first thing that happens, okay?

And he's saying, before the food even gets cold, before these 24 hours are even over, you're gonna deny me three times.

Well, what does Peter reply with?

How is he gonna deal with this news?

Matthew 26 tells us, even if I have to die with you, Peter told him, I would never deny you.

And all the disciples said the same, the same thing.

He had confidence, but look where his confidence was.

It wasn't upon the words of Jesus, because Jesus told him a word.

Jesus told him, Tonight you're gonna deny me three times.

He didn't have confidence in the words of Jesus, he didn't have confidence in Jesus, where was his confidence?

We look at two statements, both of them are I statements.

Even if I have to die with you, Peter told him, I will never deny you.

So where was his faith?

Where was his confidence?

Where was his boldness put upon?

It wasn't on the words of Jesus, it wasn't on the person of Jesus, it was on himself.

And that's sometimes where we can get even tripped up because we can't put our faith in our love for Jesus, we have to put our faith in Jesus Himself.

But because of this confidence, right, he failed.

We learn in the book of Mark that that night, just a few hours after, just a few hours after Peter told him, I would never deny you.

And all the disciples in that upper room said the same exact thing just a few hours after, Judas comes into the Garden of Gethsemane with the guards, ready to arrest him.

And what happens?

Then they all deserted him and ran away.

I think sometimes we can get confused with our Christian life.

Because of how much we study, because of how much we hear from sermons on how we can improve and how we should build our faith, a lot of us sometimes can be too much focused on the things that we do in our Christian life.

Because Christianity was not designed, it was not made to be a pull yourself up by your bootstraps belief system.

It was not a try harder and then God's gonna love you.

No, no, no.

Christianity is built upon the basis of complete and utter dependence on God.

It's not until when we realize that we're weak and how utterly needful we are for God, that's when we can build something upon our faith.

Peter wasn't the type of person who didn't love Jesus.

He did.

He absolutely, genuinely did love Jesus.

But the problem was that he trusted in his love, he trusted in himself a little too much.

He thought that that devotion that he had for God could sustain him in the way that only dependence on God could build him.

We might never be put in the place where we're saying, I'll never deny you.

But we do say things like, I've got this, I can handle this, I'm strong enough, I'm not gonna fall into that again.

We depend on our own willpower instead of the Spirit's power.

It's like when we put prayer as a final option.

We make prayer like a backup plan instead of our main weapon in spiritual warfare.

It's not until we get backed into a corner that we say, God, I need you, when that should be the first thing that we do.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians, let anyone, uh therefore, let anyone who uh who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

The Bible says that when you look at people and you look at their failings, you look at how they have fallen, that we are to take heed to look around and make sure that if we think we're standing, if we think we are above that, that we are to pay attention to our surroundings lest we fall in that same way.

Peter had confidence in himself, and we can have confidence in ourselves too.

For some of us, it's temptation.

I'm never gonna go on that website again.

I'm never gonna go to that person's house again.

I would never fall into that sin ever again.

And before we know it, we're right back into it.

For some of us, it's our relationships.

I'm never gonna speak to my spouse like that ever again.

I'm never gonna treat my children that way ever again.

But when the pressure builds, right, when we are in the middle of the pressure cooker and our emotions rise, where do we fall right back into?

And for some of it, it's our obedience.

We get all fired up, the worship's great, the message is great on Sunday morning, but when the time comes during the week when the Holy Spirit is pushing us out of our comfort zone and asking us to speak up for our faith and asking us to step away from sin, when we reach the end of ourselves and reach the end of our comfort zone, sometimes that confidence that we had just dissolves away.

When we start saying things like, I can handle this, I've got this, that's the first step of failure.

But when we say, Lord, I need you, Lord, I utterly and desperately need you, that's when something big can happen in our lives.

Because your strength will fail, but his strength never fails.

When we rely upon our strength, when we rely upon our mission, right, when we rely upon our confidence, our strength will fail, but his strength never fails.

Through Peter's story, we learn that he confided in himself, that he relied on himself instead of believing the words of Jesus, right?

He relied on his overconfidence, and as a result of it, he fell into sin.

And number two, he learned that guilt will eat you alive.

I encourage you to turn your Bibles to John chapter 18 as we follow the story here.

John 18 · chapter mention

So we see the episode in the upper room there that Peter said he would never deny Jesus, but he did.

He ended up falling into it, right?

He ran away.

When the temple guards finally got Jesus and they carried him over to the house of the high priest for an open trial, two of his disciples followed closely behind.

They didn't want to get seen, but they followed behind to see what would happen.

Jesus entered into the house of the high priest and he was put on trial.

They began asking him questions.

Are you the son of God?

Do you claim to be the Messiah?

And all the while Peter and John were in the outer courtyard seeing what happened through the open door.

When finally Peter, being in the courtyard, was approached by somebody, we pick it up in verse 17.

Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, You aren't one of this man's disciples, are you?

I am not, he said.

So here we see the first denial.

And it's significant, because admittedly, in the first century and in Jerusalem, there it was a patriarchy.

So under the law that they had, no one would believe a testimony of a woman if it was just a single woman, but nonetheless, it was a servant girl, it was a slave girl.

So there was absolutely zero pressure, because even if this slave girl said to one of the men there, hey, this man is one of Jesus' disciples, no one would take her testimony as true.

So this was a zero pressure opportunity here.

And Peter completely crumbled.

This was the first denial.

Verse 18.

Now the servants and the officials had made a what's the underlying word there?

A charcoal fire.

Because it was cold.

And they were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself.

I'd encourage you right here, because in the book of John, the words charcoal fire here, the Greek word underlying there, is used only in this instance, and then one more instance we're going to get into.

So if you have a paper Bible, if you're taking notes today, underline that, highlight that, because you're going to want to come back to this.

Keep it in the back of your mind.

And verse 25.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself.

And they said to him, You aren't one of his disciples, too, are you?

And he denied it and said, I am not the second denial.

But then finally, one of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, Didn't I see you with him in the garden?

So now he wasn't just denying Jesus, he was denying reality now, because this man had clearly seen him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

So what did Peter do, verse 27?

Peter denied it again, and immediately the rooster crowed.

Just like Jesus had said, word for word, three denials, then the rooster crowed.

Upon seeing what had happened, through his actions and through what he just had heard, it all came flooding back.

We learn in Luke 22.

Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

As soon as the rooster crowed, the Lord Jesus turned and looked at him.

So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said to him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

I cannot, I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to be Peter in that instance.

Can you imagine?

This guy who you were just having dinner with, this guy who you said you would lay down your life for him, and you fell exactly into what he said you would do.

You fell into the thing that you said you would never do.

Jesus looked him in the eye, and it all came flooding back.

The one who called him to be a fisher of men three years ago, the one who he followed for three years, gave his whole life away so he could follow this man.

The man he confessed was the Son of God, the Messiah.

He saw him perform miracles, he saw him heal the lame, heal the sick, cast out demons, he saw him walk on water, he saw the glory of God emanate from him, he saw everything up to this point, and he was looking him in the eye after falling into his greatest failure.

So what did Peter do?

And he went outside and he wept bitterly.

The word bitterly there has connotations of a sharp pain.

This isn't like just like a single tear running down your face.

This is a this is a all-body heaving tear.

Just the tears just won't stop where you can't talk, you can't breathe.

It's just coming out.

You feel it in your stomach, you feel it pounding in your heart.

It just won't stop.

So he ran away into the darkness of the night.

Because of his overconfidence, he fell, and he fell hard, and the guilt just absolutely consumed him.

So he ran and he exits the story for a time.

He is not there while Jesus is being slapped around.

He's not there when Jesus is getting taken place to place while they're trying to pin guilt on him.

He's not there when they whip him, he's not there when they put the crown of thorns, he's not there with the crucifixion, he's not there for his best friend in his greatest moment of need.

Because the guilt consumed him.

So Peter runs away into the night.

And guilt has a way of making you do that.

Guilt has a way of swallowing you whole.

It starts off with a small voice in the back of your head, right?

You did this wrong.

I can't believe you would do that.

How are you even in church right now?

You think you deserve to pray, like to talk to God?

It starts off with a small voice, but eventually, if you let it consume you, it seeps into your worship, it seeps into your prayers, it sleeps even into your dreams until it becomes everything that you think about.

You think, God's done with me now.

Peter wasn't the only one who was consumed by guilt that night, though.

Remember, another disciple betrayed him that night too, Judas Iscariot.

But Judas's story ends differently.

What did Judas do?

He realized he betrayed Jesus.

He took the money and he realized he had done something incredibly wrong.

He went and he threw it to the feet of the people that sold Jesus to.

And he said, Take this money, I don't want anything to do with that anymore.

And they said, That's blood money now.

We don't want it either.

So what did he do?

Judas got up and he ran away into the night, but he didn't stop there.

The guilt didn't just consume it, it just covered him like a wave, like a tsunami.

It just enveloped him until the only thing that he could think to do instead of running to God, what did he do?

He let it define him, he let it consume him, and he took his own life that night.

Guilt has a way of doing that, of suffocating us, isolating us, deceiving us into thinking that God is done with him.

But you know what?

Today, there's a way we can betray God too.

We might not be put in a place where we're denying him in front of a servant girl.

We might not be put in a place where we're gonna be standing in front of Jesus in a trial and we're gonna be not associate ourselves with him.

But have you ever been in a place where, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit of God is indwelling you?

And the Bible tells us that he guides us in all truth and he convicts us in sin.

So he tells us, he guides us in ways that, like, hey, you should go and do this or you should go and not do this.

Have you ever been in a place where you felt God's Holy Spirit leading you and you told him, No, I'm gonna do things my way instead.

I have.

I've denied Jesus.

I've done what the Bible describes as grieve God's Holy Spirit.

The Bible gives us a command.

It says in Ephesians 4, don't grieve God's Holy Spirit.

What does that mean?

It means simply this.

If you're a parent, you know exactly what this means.

Is that when you tell your child to do something because you've been down that road and you're warning them, like, hey, don't go and do this.

I know what it's like, I know what the repercussions are, and they go out and do it anyway.

You're grieved because you had the best intentions for them, you want the best for them, but they went and they did it anyway.

So you feel grief in your heart, and God's Holy Spirit has the same love for us where He knows the best way.

He knows go and do this and it'll be good.

Go and don't do this sin, and you're gonna have a good result.

But when we deny God's Holy Spirit, we grieve him.

I remember a few years ago, um, I was about to graduate college.

It was the break right before that, and I got a really and I got into a really dumb, bad argument with my dad.

I remember we were um, I was living at home with him, and we were walking around the marina and talking about future stuff.

I'm not gonna get super into what exactly it was, but just understand this.

I've got a hard head, my dad's got a hard head, and when we think we're right, we butt heads.

But this time it got really ugly.

We said some things that we probably didn't mean, we threw around some insults, we honestly didn't honor God in that conversation at all.

And I remember I felt really, really dumb and bad about it, but I felt angry too.

So on the ride back home, I remember my my dad, he opened the door for me and my mom to go into, and when we got into our house, and I remember I was just like angrily about to just go into my room and just sit there and and sulk in it.

When I reached and I grabbed the doorknob, I felt the pull.

In probably, I think, my greatest moment where I knew for a fact, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, God was telling me to do something through his spirit.

God was telling me, Edgar, turn around.

Do not go into your room and say you're sorry to your dad.

Ask for forgiveness, restore that relationship.

And my hand stood, uh, I was standing there with my hand on the doorknob for a solid 30 seconds as I began to contemplate what I should do.

I knew, I knew in that moment that God was guiding me to correct my behavior, but because of my pride, because of my ego, because of my machismo, I turned the doorknob and I walked into that room.

I grieved God's Holy Spirit.

I betrayed Jesus, and I felt guilt about it.

I felt guilt knowing that I, training to be a pastor, was out here directly opposing and disobeying God.

And when we do that, when we feel guilt, we have two paths that we can take.

There's the path that Judas took, condemnation.

Condemnation says, you're finished, you've gone too far.

God is done with you.

That's the path that Judas took.

He let that guilt define him, he let that guilt consume him, and at the end of the day, he killed himself.

He let that be the end of his story.

But then there's another path too.

There's the path of conviction.

Both of these stem off of guilt, actually.

Because conviction says, yes, you messed up.

But come back to me and let me restore you.

See, look at it like this way guilt, that feeling, is a God-given emotion.

That is meant to help us to correct our behavior, to make us realize the gravity of our sin.

But guilt is not where we are meant to stay.

Guilt is not the bedroom.

Guilt is the hallway.

You're not going to put out a mattress in your hallway at home, right?

You're not going to live there.

You're not going to sit in the hallway because that's just the way that you go to and from places.

Guilt is the hallway.

Conviction is the bedroom.

And when you finally go through your guilt, you have two choices condemnation or conviction.

Are you going to go the way of saying, I don't believe God has enough grace for me.

I believe I've gone too far gone.

Or are you going to go the way of saying, I need Jesus.

I need to depend on him.

I learned that my way, my guilt is too heavy for me.

I need you, Jesus, to help redeem this.

Because my guilt is grace or is great, but his grace is greater.

No matter what you're going through today, no matter what guilt you've brought into this room today, no matter where you've gone or how far you've gone, understand this that my guilt is great, but his grace is greater.

And we learn through this story of Peter that finally grace writes a better ending.

Judas's story ended with condemnation.

He killed himself, and now we remember him for being a traitor, a backstabber, a betrayer.

But Peter, we don't remember him that way because of what exactly happens in John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

The Bible tells us uh the setting of the story.

This takes place after Jesus was crucified, after Jesus resurrected, and he appeared to his disciples twice before.

This is his third appearance to his disciples now.

Chapter 21, verse 4 says, Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus then goes on to perform a miracle in front of them.

He tells them to cast their nets on the side.

They hadn't caught any fishes up to that point.

And they haul up a big load of fish now, and they realize that through this miracle, verse 7, the disciple whom Jesus loved, John, therefore said to Peter, It is the Lord.

And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and he threw himself into the sea.

I just want to stop here real quick.

And just like this is huge.

This is what defined the difference between Judas and Peter.

At that point in time, when the night of the betrayal happened, both of them ran away from Jesus.

Both of them ran away into the darkness of the night.

For Judas, that's where it ended.

He killed himself.

His guilt consumed him.

Everything that he did defined him, and he killed himself for it.

Peter also, equally just about as much, ran away into the night, and that guilt stayed with him.

But two days later, after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, what was Peter doing?

This is what is the difference maker.

He didn't run away from Jesus.

He didn't jerk away from Jesus.

Here he was in the middle of a boat, and he jumped into the sea and he ran towards Jesus.

That is the difference maker.

That's what's going to save you from your guilt.

That's what's going to save you from everything.

That's what's going to redeem you if you choose not just to walk, not just to nudge, but run, full-body run towards Jesus.

That's what's going to be the difference maker.

That's what it's going to be.

Verse 9.

When he gets on land, he saw, what did he see?

A charcoal fire in place.

The fish laid on it.

And bread.

Like I said, in the book of John, charcoal fire, the Greek word for it, is only used in the betrayal.

And now here, Jesus was recreating the environment.

But here's something to get, and this is super important.

Because some people look at Jesus as a complete judgment, as a uh God that's going to throw lightning bolts at me, right?

Jesus wasn't doing this like how you do to a dog when it pees on the carpet, you get its head and you shove its face in him.

I'm like, look, that's what you did, right?

God's not doing that to us.

God is not that way.

What was he doing here?

He was recreating the environment to redeem the moment, to redeem the memory.

So now when Peter is thinking of a charcoal fire, he's not thinking of the time I betrayed Jesus.

He's thinking about how Jesus redeemed me.

Because he goes on to say in verse 15, when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

And Simon said, Said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

And he said, Feed my lambs.

The first question, Do you love me?

The first affirmation, Yes, I do.

Verse 16, 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.

And he said to him, Tend my sheep.

And he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And Peter was grieved because he 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.

So here he was, the three denials, but now the three affirmations of I love you.

And Jesus wasn't just rubbing it in, like I said, he was redeeming the situation because he wasn't just calling him to be forgiven.

He was calling him up to something every time he said, Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.

He was calling him back into Christian leadership where he would be a big person in the early church where he would be a servant of Jesus.

Because Jesus doesn't just forgive us, he redeems us.

He doesn't just wipe it clean, he writes a better ending for us.

The book of Colossians says, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, and he set it aside and he nailed it to the cross.

He doesn't just wipe it clean, he redeems us, he redefines us.

He doesn't just take our moments and say, ah, you're good.

He takes it and he makes it into a new story.

And that's the difference, Winkford, between Peter and Judas.

That's what made the difference.

It's that Jesus rewrote the end of his story because Peter ran to him and said, Jesus, I need you.

And he let Jesus write the end of his story.

Judas's story ended with guilt.

Peter's story ended with grace.

And your story, your story is still being written.

Because failure isn't final, because grace writes a better ending.

As we close off today, guys, just simple as this.

Maybe that's just you today.

Maybe you've denied Jesus just like I did in your own way.

By your words, by your actions, or maybe even your silence.

But I'm here to ask you.

I'm here to beg you, honestly.

Just to beg you.

Just one thing to do today, guys.

Run to Jesus with your guilt.

Don't walk.

Don't just look at him and consider it.

But if you came in today carrying something, if you came in today being weighed down by something, by something you know that you are ashamed of, run.

Don't walk.

Run to him into his loving, open arms.

Confess your sins and ask him to redeem the situation.

And he will.

I promise you, he will.

Judas's story ended with guilt.

Peter's story ended with grace.

How will your story end today?

Let's pray.

As we have.