• A Sunday school teacher asked her children where the disciples and Jesus went after the Last Supper Church Service. After a moment of silence, one of the little girl said, “The probably went to Denny’s”.
• The disciples had just finished one of the most meaningful and moving Church services in their lives.
• We have experienced this in our lives many times.
• What they experienced is very much like what we experience. Let’s read it together.
Mar 14:26-31 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." 29 Peter said to him, "Even though they all fall away, I will not." 30 And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times." 31 But he said emphatically, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." And they all said the same.
• Here is a little story Mark included in his record to the Gentiles because of the truths God wanted us to see.
• The church service had just ended.
• The congregation, so to speak, dismissed and went to a place of prayer.
• I think you could say there were all fired up.
• In the height of emotions, Jesus lets the air out of the balloon.
• “You will all fall away, for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.
• You talk about a downer after a great Church service!
• “Wait a minute!” Peter said. “The rest of these guys may fall away, but not ole Pete.”
• Jesus replied to him, “Before the rooster sings his second verse, you will be singing your third in denying me.”
• Peter was still filled with resolve. “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.”
• There was a round of “Amen’s” from the group.
• There are three things that I want us to consider in this story.
I. The Rule of Revision:
• Life isn’t determined by our high moments, but how we persist in our low moments.
• The disciples were all fired up.
• If that were what God was seeking in their lives, they had arrived.
• However, I don’t believe that is what God was seeking; unchallenged bravado.
• Several weeks ago, Greg Tennyson and I were meeting for an accountability session.
• That is a time when be both honestly speak about where we are in our lives.
• During our time, I said, “Greg, I have some very bad news.”
• He asked what it was, and I said, “I am in a very good place spiritually.”
• He shook his head and said, “Oh-oh. I wish you hadn’t said that.”
• We both had learned, through life and especially over the last few years, that when we are in a good place, that is like the calm before the storm.
• It is a respite before the test reaches a new level of stress.
• I believe that is what these disciples were facing now, a spiritual and emotional high before the toughest test.
• Jesus didn’t want for them to be totally blind-sided, so He said, “All of you are going to slip on the next slippery surface.”
• Our life growth isn’t determined by the spiritual highs. It isn’t defined by the victories.
• Ill. A factory worker went into the break room at break time amidst a group of grumbling, complaining, dissatisfied workers.
• This worker, however, was chipper and happy, smiles and laughs.
• One of the other workers was irritated by the overly-happy mood of this worker.
• “Why are you so happy? Did you get a promotion?”
• “No,” smiled the worker. “I am happy because it is break time.”
• Everyone scowled at the worker. One of them said, “Don’t you know break will be over in six minutes?”
• Jesus wasn’t irritated because of the disciple’s spiritual and emotional highs.
• He was just concerned they would become overly disillusioned when “break was over.”
• And for them, “break was almost over”.
• We don’t judge a job on how great the break-time is.
• And we don’t evaluate our Christian life on how high we get spiritually and emotionally during a great Church service.
• I honestly want to stay on a spiritual high, even an emotional high for Jesus.
• Some people think that is all there is to the Christian life.
• I think Jesus tried to teach the disciples this at least once before.
• In Luke 10, when the 70 followers returned from a spiritually high preaching, teaching and healing, Jesus said, “Don’t rejoice over this, but that your name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20).
• He was telling them, don’t get addicted to the spiritual and emotional highs or you will begin to subtly worship those.
• That will be your objective instead of your place in the kingdom.
• One of the hardest things is to come back from camp, a mission trip, or a very powerful service and have life smack you right in the face.
• Why does life go that way?
• I believe it is because God is not so much interested in our spiritual and emotional highs as we are.
• I believe He is more concerned with our continually sanctification.
• He is looking for our spiritual growth, our cleaning our lives.
• Those special moments are important because they usually mean we have overcome some issue, habit, problem or attitude.
• But God wants to continue the growth when we want to enjoy the “break”.
• So God immediately takes us into the next lesson before we are ready.
• To be honest, after a great victory in my life over my flesh, I want to stay a while and celebrate.
• God knows I will lose momentum, so He presses me on. Deeper, stronger, which means harder.
II. The Rule of Resemblance:
• Comparison is the worst rule for righteousness.
• The story doesn’t say that the other disciples were resentful of Peter’s statement, but I would have been.
• He said, “All of these other guys will probably fall, but I won’t.”
• I am certain John looked at Peter and at least thought, “You didn’t! You didn’t just say that!”
• Last Wednesday night when we were studying the Beatitudes, I used an illustration of a kitchen sink.
• I likened the cold water as our natural responses that are sinful.
• The hot water represented God’s Spirit living in and through us.
• Our natural response when we are confronted with situations or temptations is to shoot out our right hand and turn on the cold water.
• We have responded a certain way all of our lives.
• But what we will do is say is, my cold water is better than your cold water.
• My fleshly, carnal, natural method of handling a situation is holier than yours.
• But as we discussed on Wednesday night, if our response isn’t the flow of Christ through our life, which is the only righteousness we can perform, it is rejected by God. It is filthy and not comparable to anyone elses.
• I once said that we are not supposed to compare ourselves with each other but compare ourselves to Jesus.
• I don’t believe that anymore.
• I do not believe that is what the Bible teaches or pleases God.
• Adam and Eve compared themselves to God and hid.
• God wanted them to fellowship with Him.
• He wants us to fellowship with Him, associate with Him and identify with Him.
• That is why the only righteousness we can perform is what He does through us.
• That is why none of our natural reactions are acceptable or worthy of comparison to anything.
• Our natural reactions in their best form are as filthy rags, soiled garments.
• Don’t compare yourself with me or you will fail in this life.
• Don’t compare yourself with the drunkard, alcoholic or drug addict, or you will shoot way too low.
• Don’t compare yourself with God, or you will give up in total discouragement.
• Yield to God. Associate with God. Identify with God and let Him live through you.
• Then you will win, for He has already won. Jesus has won and HE is Lord.
III. The Rule of Restoration:
• God is never surprised by our failures, but always seeks our restoration.
• "You will all fall away, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."
• He was saying, “you will fall away, but I am not surprised and neither will I give up on you.”
• Often my failures surprise me. Particularly after “that good service” or that “special weekend.”
• Many times, after my selfishness has gotten the best of me, I sit and mope.
• I expected better. I thought I was beyond that now. I thought I was better than that.
• Yet, Jesus simply reminds me that my purification continues.
• He sees deep into my life, into my sinful attitudes, hidden passions, denied desires, and says,
• “These will have to go. I must bring them to the surface to deal with them.”
• Jesus looked at these disciples and saw that their moxy had buried hidden fears.
• Their passion for the kingdom had disguised their selfishness.
• Their determination had sent their lack of faith underground.
• Their admiration for Jesus had even covered their hidden ambitions.
• But Jesus saw it. Jesus knew.
• Let me show you one thing before we finish.
• Luk 22:31-34 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." 33 Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death." 34 Jesus said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me."
• Doctor Luke added to the conversation an interesting concept.
• Our being sifted like wheat, with Satan involved.
• When you think of sifting, you think of purifying. Why would Satan want us purified?
• He doesn’t. He does want to accuse us. Revelations 12:10.
• And yet, without going into it too deeply in Job, Satan cannot have any territory that God does not give him (Job 1:8-12, 2:3-6).
• I want us to consider how a screen sifts. It separates the large from the small.
• This, I believe, is what God wanted to do in Peter’s life.
• He wanted to separate the small and worthless from the grand, valuable, priceless.
• You can almost see a picture of a small child who will not let go of the small toys in his life.
• He holds onto his favorite baby blanket instead of running to the parent for comfort.
• God is not tempted with evil, nor does He tempt with evil. James 1:13.
• But my God is awesome enough that He uses all things for His glory and my good.
• If sin lives in my heart, He will allow it to show itself so it can be removed.
• And when it shows up, 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
• I honestly believe this is plan “B”.
• I believe I can present a case that God uses plan “B” when we refuse to use plan “A”.
• Plan “B” is always more painful than plan “A”. But plan “A” is not pain free.
• So what is plan “A”.
• 1Co 11:31-32 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
• I believe it is when we, in our private devotions, look deep within our lives into those places we don’t like to look, and, through the light of the Holy Spirit see and confess those sinful seeds that rest there.
• The Psalmist David said, Psa 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
• Most of us don’t like to look in our lives with a discerning eye.
• Most of us would rather hide from God, like Adam and Eve, than take an honest inventory of what God wants to remove. Thus, plan “B”.
• Some of you are in plan “B” right now.
• You are struggling and your Christian walk seems hopeless.
• Jesus says to you what He said to Peter, “It will be over soon and I will be before you.”
• Hold on.
• Some of you are in a good place spiritually. I tell you, get ready.
• Perhaps if you consider plan “A” today, you can be spared the next plan “B” program.
• Perhaps you are not sure that you are in God’s purification program at all.
• You have never established a relationship with God and you have not seen His hand in your life.
• You can settle that today. You can be saved and become enrolled in God’s purification program.
• We have an invitation here for people who need to deal with God.
• It is an invitation for you to respond to God in any and every way you need.
• After the service, you can still deal with God, but if the voice of God is speaking to you now, it will not be speaking after the service.
• That is why the scripture says, “2Co 6:2 For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
