And Peter

Do you ever turn the news on and the the the story the story that you want to hear is not the first story that they tell in the in the newscast?

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

They they hook you with a certain story that they're gonna tell you, but they don't tell you right away.

They make you watch to the end of the news show so you can get what you came to watch.

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

Okay.

Well, I'm not gonna give you what I brought you to Mark for until the very end.

Okay, so I'm gonna bury the lead this morning.

And in the gospel, according to Mark, we have an amazing story of an apostle by the name of Peter.

Peter had a foot-shaped mouth.

Anyone know someone like that?

Peter's always inserting his foot and saying the wrong thing.

He's a bold man, he's a very passionate person.

He's extremely emotional.

And when the disciples need someone to say something, they turn to Peter.

Matter of fact, he had such a penchant for speaking that there was a particular occasion on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus was transfigurated in their presence.

And Peter, the Bible says, did not know what to say.

But that did not keep him from speaking.

He spoke anyway.

He said the wrong thing.

I think those of us who've been saved for a long time identify sometimes with Peter.

In this gospel record, Peter has declared his undying loyalty to Jesus even unto death.

That Jesus has declared he's going to die, and Peter says, I'm going to follow you.

And if it would be necessary, I would die for you tonight.

And Jesus prophesies, Peter, you're not going to die for me tonight.

Rather, you're not even going to live for me before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.

Well, that's what we find at the end of Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

The scripture says, notice in three occasions, verse 67, and when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, Oh, thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.

But he denied.

And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.

And he denied it again.

And a little after that they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeeth thereto.

But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

And the second time the cock crew, and Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.

And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Imagine the Gospel of Mark is the only copy of the Bible that you have.

You don't have Genesis through Malachi, you don't have Matthew, Luke, John to Revelation.

You only have the Gospel of Mark.

And you not only have the Gospel of Mark, you only have 14 chapters.

You've been introduced to this rugged fisherman called from the Sea of Galilee.

We saw him in the video this morning.

He has failed as a Christian.

He's fallen flat on his face.

He did not just do the thing he said he wouldn't do, he did the exact opposite of it.

He said he would associate with Jesus.

He actually vehemently cursed, denied association with Jesus.

And imagine you only have the Gospel of Mark as your story and the first 14 chapters as the conclusion, and you'd live the rest of your life wondering whatever happened to that famous disciple whose name was Peter.

When have you believed that grace was for everyone else but you?

And what would it feel like if Jesus whispered your name and called you into the resurrection story?

Or can I ask it this way, how often do you measure yourself by your mistakes?

Wondering if God could ever and would ever use you again.

And what would it mean to hear him call you personally right now, saying, and Peter.

May we pray.

Our Father, thank you for our time together today.

Lord, we we've been on this property this entire morning.

We saw the sun rise because the sun rose.

We visited Calvary, we visited the empty tomb.

And Lord, in a very real sense, we feel like we've been taken into the heavenly world.

Help us to see him once again.

And in seeing Jesus, help us to see ourselves and to find ourselves in our name in this story.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for standing, and please be seated.

Peter was not the only disciple to fail that weekend.

Peter was not the only disciple to run when the shepherd was smitten.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says all the disciples forsook him and fled.

But his sin was clearly on his mind, and Peter felt the weight of failure for three long days.

Peter might have been thinking, I have seen the Messiah and I have denied him.

What left is there now for me?

The others whisper hope, but hope feels like a language I no longer speak.

The cross stands somewhere behind me.

The tomb awaits somewhere ahead of me, and I, I am caught between wood and stone, between what I've done and what he said.

And Peter finds himself in a hopeless moment.

Hopelessness has been defined as the state of having no expectation of improvement or success or positive outcomes characterized by a profound despair, helplessness, and a lack of hope.

I wonder if there's anyone in the room this morning that has a dire sense of hopelessness about your life.

Someone said Jesus didn't just rise from the grave.

He rose with Peter on his mind.

Go with me to this.

I have to give you the secret.

I was gonna make you wait.

I can't make you wait any longer.

Go to chapter 16.

How many of you are good at keeping secrets?

Will you raise your hand?

How many of you are terrible at keeping secrets?

I'm gonna tell you the secret.

These disciples waited three long days as the Lord Jesus Christ was buried in an earthen tomb.

They thought that all hope was gone.

They thought that Jesus, because they didn't listen to what he said, was a past tense Messiah.

He was a has-been with a has-been philosophy of life that they thought would have saved them.

They gave up all hope that Jesus would live again.

But at chapter 16 of the Gospel of Mark, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, who had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came into the sepulchre at the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?

And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great, and entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting at the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted.

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted.

Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified.

He is risen, he is not here.

Behold the place where they laid him, but go your way, tell his disciples.

And Peter.

That he goeth before you into Galilee.

Jesus didn't just rise from the grave, he rose with Peter on his two words that changed Peter's life.

Brian Stevenson grew up in the South in a time and place when racism and injustice were endemic in legal systems.

He had a gift.

He was brilliant as a law man.

Went to law school.

He could have taken a high-paying job, lived comfortably, and strayed far away from hard situations, but instead he chose the opposite.

He decided to defend people that no one else wanted, the forgotten and the poor and the condemned.

Stevenson began working with prisoners on death row.

People society had already decided were beyond hope, and early in his career he was given a case that would change his life forever.

He began to defend a man named Walter McMillan.

Walter was accused of murder in the state of Alabama.

He was quickly convicted, sentenced to death, but there was only one problem.

He didn't do it.

There were witnesses who said that Walter was somewhere else when the crime happened.

There was no solid evidence tying him to the scene, but in a broken system, truth didn't matter as much as assumptions did.

So there Walter sat on death row, waiting to die for a crime he didn't commit.

Well, Stevenson went to meet Macmillan.

We can imagine the moment, a young lawyer sitting across the table from a man sitting on death row that has a life sentence label.

Stevenson expected to talk about legal strategy, but instead, when he encountered MacMillan, he found something deeper.

Over time, through conversations with people like Walter, Stevenson began to realize something.

The system wasn't just lacking fairness, it was lacking something else, something human, something special.

It was lacking mercy.

And that realization eventually came down to two words that would define his life forever.

Just mercy.

Two simple words turned someone's life around.

Just mercy.

Now, very quickly this morning, I want to tell you the story of Peter, and these two words in chapter 7 will ring loudly in your heart.

First of all, I want us to notice in our Bible the depths of Peter's denial.

That's in chapter 14.

What does it mean that Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ?

Because we can't appreciate the heights of his deliverance without recognizing the depths of his own despair.

The Bible says here in chapter 14 that Peter denied three times that he had any association with Jesus, and they incrementally got worse and worse and worse.

First of all, notice in verse 67, he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what you are saying.

His first denial was an attempt to distance himself from Christ.

A servant girl looking closely at Peter says, This man was with Jesus.

And he says, Woman, I don't know him.

What does this mean?

It's a soft, subtle disassociation of Peter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Imagine there might be moments in our week that we subtly distance ourselves from the Lord Jesus Christ because our identity with Jesus and his cross might cost us the job promotion, might cost us the relationship that gets us ahead in life.

And instead of accepting the offense of the cross, we soft pedal who we are in Christ and softly distance ourselves from Jesus.

By the way, the offense of the cross, we sang this song this morning, the old rugged cross, the offense of the cross is the price that could be avoided in life had we not fully identified with Jesus.

And as we sit here in freedom in American churches today, waving out, oh glory out front, not waiting for the government to stop this meeting, there are millions of Christians all around the world today who are suffering at the hands of those who hate the preaching of the gospel and hate the name of Jesus and how blessed we are to preach in freedom today, and how we ought to pray for those who are suffering for Jesus because they won't softly disassociate from him.

Well, there's a second denial.

That's verse 69.

A maid saw him again and began to say to them that stood by this is one of them.

She said, He has that Galilean accent.

Marie says, My southern accent doesn't come out until I start preaching.

You're one of them.

You're one of them rednecks.

I used to be a hillbilly.

And then I went to college.

Now I'm a Hill William.

Anyway.

His second denial.

Some of you will get that at lunch this afternoon.

Just text me, got it, and we'll all laugh together.

The second time he denies in verse 69, he denies association with Christ.

I am not, he says.

A follower of Jesus.

What does it mean?

This is the temptation of protecting reputation.

The pressure increases.

Now it's not just observation, it's accusation.

Peter becomes more forceful.

He verbally denies belonging to Jesus.

Followers.

Finally, in verse 70 and 71, he completely rejects all association with Jesus.

The Bible says he begins to curse and to swear.

Watch this.

This is the temptation of self-preservation at all costs.

And what is so striking to me here, that as Jesus is about to give himself up as a sacrifice, as an offering, as Jesus is fully identifying with who he is in the Father, as he is fully willing to bear the pain of a cross and suffer for you and me and for Peter at the moment that Jesus is willing to sacrifice.

Peter is willing to self-preserve his own life at the cost even of his relationship with Christ.

Fear, when unchecked, can push a person to deny what they once boldly confessed.

It was Peter, the one who had walked on water.

It was Peter who had at one time confessed.

When others missed the identity of Jesus, this is the Christ.

You are the Son of the living God.

Peter, the one who said in Matthew 26, I will die for thee, is at this night fully rejecting his association with Jesus Christ, taking an oath.

He disavowed all allegiance to Christ.

Through disassociation, Peter's not just lying, he is severing all visible connection to Jesus to preserve himself.

He creates distance, he follows afar off, he falls to pressure, his faith collapses.

Someone said Peter didn't just fall in the courtyard, he fell long before the courtyard.

He even fell before he began following at a distance.

Peter fell slowly.

He fell incrementally every time Peter did anything in his own power and strength.

Every time he thought he had the world by the tail, temptation by the tail, his inner life by the tail drew him oh so slowly into the pit of despair.

And can I just go on the record and say this morning, we often don't fall quickly into sin.

We fall incrementally distancing ourselves from who we are in Christ and God's plan for our life.

And little by little, and concession by concession, and compromise by compromise, we eventually find ourselves in a place when we fully disassociate ourselves with what we believe and who we are in Christ.

At the moment when Jesus was giving his life as a ransom for Peter, Peter was seeking to save his life from the hounds that sought him.

Number two, the despair he felt.

At the end of chapter 14, the Bible says, and when he thought thereon, he wept.

He wept.

Notice in your Bible, verse 72, there.

Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him.

I don't want to blow past this stop sign here.

Well, you look at verse 68 with me.

I think this is really important.

He denied saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest.

And he went out into the porch in the cock crew.

That's the first warning.

That's a warning.

Hey! Did you hear that, Peter?

Did you hear that warning sign?

It's gonna crow twice.

Did you hear it the first time?

He did, and he blew right past the stop sign.

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, was a slave trader.

His mother died when he was six years of age.

He once bragged he could curse for two solid hours without uh ever repeating the same expression.

His father was a slave trader.

He became a slave trader.

Even after his conversion, he, through his sanctification, had to work through that process of owning slaves.

One particular night his ship began to take on water.

He had to jump overboard to save himself.

He found wreckage from the ship and bobbing up and down somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, he heard the words of his mother.

Six years of age.

He heard the words of his mother.

I have called and you have refused.

I also will laugh when your calamity cometh.

And I just want to say this morning, there's some alarm bells going off in some of your lives today.

And the Holy Spirit is warning you stop, bridge is out ahead.

Stop, destruction is out ahead of you.

And when he hears it the second time, he remembers.

This whole Easter story is an exercise in remembering.

You know why we come together every Sunday?

Because we need to remember.

You know why we sanctify one Sunday a year to tell this gospel story in every way we can is because we need to be caused to remember, remember that body broken for us, remember that blood that was shed for us, remember the hopelessness of three days without Jesus, and remember that he rose again from the grave.

And when he remembered, when he came to himself, he wept.

This wasn't gradual guilt, it was an instant overwhelming clarity of mind and thought.

Though his sin was incremental, his remorse was immediate.

Peter didn't just realize he had sinned, he realized he had become the very thing he swore he would never be.

Hey church, don't ever say, I would never.

Say, but by the grace of God, I hope to never.

Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

We see where he started, we see his despair, we even see now the heights to which Peter had risen as a preacher.

Now, time fails me to tell you the whole story, but go very quickly to the book of Acts.

Listen, our family is not having lunch till four o'clock today, and so I have plenty of time.

That's actually called dinner.

How many of you call it dinner?

Raise your hand if you call it dinner.

How many of you have supper?

Well, it is called the marriage supper of the lamb, okay?

So Yeah, we're having dinner at 4 o'clock today.

I'll try to be quick.

I try to be quick, but I may only see some of you once a year, so I've got to get it all in when you're here.

In Acts chapter 2, in the city of Jerusalem, this is 50 days after Passover.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It's 50 days later.

And as described in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of fire on the city of Jerusalem.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And God needed a preacher to tell all the Jews gathered together at Jerusalem that Jesus is the Messiah.

He's resurrected, and he has the power to save.

Now, if we were on a pulpit committee searching for a preacher 50 days after Passover, we probably would choose John.

He's the only disciple at the foot of the cross.

He's been given custody by Jesus of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

He's called, he's called Mary, mother to John.

He's called John son to Mary.

And John will take care of Mary the rest of her life.

If I'm choosing a preacher, I think I'm going with John.

Or Andrew, the soul winner.

Every time you see Andrew in the Bible, he's bringing someone to Jesus.

I'd probably pick Andrew.

Jesus doesn't pick John, he doesn't pick Andrew.

Judas is no longer around.

But he picks Peter.

Why in the world would Peter be the preacher 50 days after his public failure to preach the gospel?

I'm glad you asked.

Because our God likes to take broken people and put their lives back together and place them on the mantle of his goodness and grace.

Can we all say amen?

And how many of us identify that it is the Lord Jesus that meets us in our place of brokenness and meets us at the end of ourselves?

He takes all the stealth out of us, all of the willpower out of us, he takes all of the pride out of us, and he brings us down into where if we encompass anything, if we compost Jesus, it's going to work in our lives.

Peter stands and preaches on the first somebody of this church.

3,000 souls got saved.

We'll go to chapter 4.

And we find Peter in the city of Jerusalem.

He's in the temple now, just a few days fast forwarded from chapter 2.

Peter performs a miracle with John in chapter 3.

This awakens the interest of the Jewish leaders because they thought if they cut off the head, they'd kill Jesus' body.

But they didn't kill the head.

He came back to life.

They thought they'd cut off the head, but actually Jesus crushed the head of the enemy.

That's the devil.

Hallelujah.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, thy seed and her seed.

It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his hill.

Jesus got a bruised hill.

Satan got a crushed head.

Aren't you glad Jesus destroyed the works of the devil?

So here's Peter.

The church is marching forward.

Verse 1, as they spake unto the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them and they're upset.

Verse 2.

They're grieved.

They're mad.

Nothing more angry than a religious, angry person.

They laid their hands on them, verse 3.

And then they brought Peter back to a very familiar place.

Verse 5.

Notice it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and as many as were the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem, and when they had set them in the mist.

Now you can research this, but you'll discover Peter is standing before the same crowd that Jesus stood before and was condemned to die.

And it's in the same place where Peter denied the Lord that Jesus brings Peter back to that place after the resurrection of Christ.

And Peter now has a second shot at identifying with Jesus.

Aren't you glad that we have a Savior, not of just second chances and third chances and fifth chances and tenth chances?

We have a God who is plenteous in mercy and grace.

He brings him back to this place, and what does Peter do?

He doesn't fold this time.

No.

No.

They said, You need to stop.

You need to stop preaching.

Well, they can't stop.

Because the last time Peter stood on that pavement, he was full of himself.

This time he stood on that pavement, he was full of the Spirit of God.

Be it known, verse 10, unto you and to all the people in Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom He crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him, did this man stand before you whole?

This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

He passed the test the second time.

How does a man who fully disassociated with Jesus, who goes out to weep bitterly, how in the world does he ever become the poster boy, the face of the franchise, the preacher of Pentecost, and a man who's now is willing to give his life.

And may I say he does give his life?

You say, Pastor, how does he die?

He's crucified.

But watch this.

Peter's not just crucified.

They crucify him upside down.

He says, I'm not worthy to die like my Lord.

What happened in that man's life?

Two words.

And Peter.

When Jesus rose from the dead, he had Peter on his mind.

And the angel said, Tell the disciples, make sure you tell Peter, watch this, because I still identify with him.

And I still love him.

And I still care about him.

He's still part of us.

And I'm going to use him in a wonderful way.

Peter must have thought, if he's not done with me, I'm not done with him.

Brian Stevenson fought for Walter Macmillan.

For years facing opposition, corruption, resistance, but he didn't quit.

Eventually the truth came out.

Macmillan was proven innocent, his conviction was overturned, and after years on death row, he walked out a free man.

But the story doesn't end there.

Those two words, just mercy, reshaped Stevenson's life too.

He went on to start a justice initiative.

And through that work, he's helped free innocent people and defend the wrongly condemned fighting injustice across the nation.

Two simple words: just Peter, or just mercy, and Peter.

Because when Jesus said, and Peter, he wasn't just giving instructions.

He was extending mercy.

He's saying, Peter, I saw your failure.

But I'm not finished with you.

I heard your denial, but I still call your name Peter.

You think you're disqualified.

But I'm I'm adding you back in.

Maybe you're here today and you are living in a Peter moment.

You've messed up.

You failed.

You said things you regret.

You have become the thing you hated.

You've done the things you wish you could undo.

And now you think I'm done.

I don't belong.

I'll come into church today and tease my conscience and go about my way.

God can't use me anymore.

But the message of resurrection is still the same.

Go tell the disciples and Rick.

Go tell the disciples and Daniel.

Go tell the disciples and Ray.

I'm not through with you.

I have a plan for your life.

Because Jesus doesn't just rise from the dead, he calls names.

Our Lord restores people.

He brings people back in.

Whatever you've done.

Wherever you've been.

However far you think you've fallen, there's still two words with your name on them.

Found in Mark chapter 16, verse 7.

Mark 16:7

And he sent me here today to tell you that his mercy is greater than your failure and your sin.

And you don't have to wear the label of your worst behavior, because in Christ you have his name and his righteousness, and you can have his power.

And all God's people said, Let's pray together, may we?

Thank you for listening so well.

Thank you for being here today.