Message by Pr. Eddie Fernandes
Introduction
Slide 1 (title) Good morning. Last week Tom took us through the 3rd station of the cross. He described what took place when Jesus was the victim of great injustice, betrayal and cruelty at the hands of His own people, at the hands of the religious Sanhedrin, including the High Priest of Israel, and at the hands of the Roman Empire in the persons of King Herod and Pontius Pilate. Tom taught us that in times of injustice we need to remember three things: God is in Control, we need to Testify to the Truth and we must Take Courage to remain steadfast to God’s Word and Purpose. Today we progress to the 4th Station of the Cross in a message I have titled: The High Priest’s Courtyard – The Essentiality of Forgiveness. The Key People are Jesus & Peter. The Key Teaching is FORGIVENESS and the Key Scriptures are found in Matthew 26. Let us read the passage and then dive right into the story.
Slide 2a (verse) “69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said. 70 But he denied it before them all. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said. 71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ 72 He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’ 73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.’ Slide 2b (verse) 74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:69-75 – NIV).
So what’s the story? The Gospel of Matthew records the call of the first disciples. Jesus was about to begin His history-making and world-changing ministry. He was somewhere in the region of 30 years of age when He was baptized by John the Baptist. This took place in the 15th year of Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar according to Luke 3:1. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, would have turned 30 in April of the same year because John was six months older than Jesus. Pontius Pilate was appointed Governor of the Roman Province of Judea and King Herod was the Tetrarch of Galilee.
Some historians believe Jesus was baptized on a Sunday in September around 26AD. He would be crucified during Passover 3 ½ years later in 30 AD. After His baptism He was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights without consuming water or food. Leaving the wilderness He went for a walk besides the Sea of Galilee where he saw two brothers, Peter and Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Jesus called out to them: “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The Bible tells us immediately they dropped the nets, left everything behind and followed him. Jesus went on to choose an additional 10 disciples.
He walked daily with those 12 men, He spoke to them, He taught them, He ate with them and crisscrossed the country of Israel with them as they watched Him perform signs, wonders and miracles unlike anything they had ever seen or heard. They became a close-knit family. They saw Him heal lepers, open blind eyes, restore movement to paralytics, and they even stared incredulously when He raised the dead back to life! They saw Him take authority over nature and the very elements. Time-and-again they were astounded by His power and amazed by His wisdom and knowledge. Peter was among His closest friends.
You are Petros – a small rock Slide 3 (sub-title)
We have all heard of Dwayne Johnson, also called The Rock, but let me tell you he was not the original Rock. The original rock was Peter. When Jesus called him his name was Simon. Jesus changed his name as we read in John 1. Jesus said to him “I will call you Peter.” The Greek word was “Petros” and in Aramaic it was “Cephas”. It literally meant “small stone.” Please remember He was not saying Peter was the cornerstone and neither was He saying He was the Eternal Rock upon which the Church would be built. Jesus is the only cornerstone and the only Foundational Rock upon which we can build our lives and should anchor our Church. When Jesus called him “small stone” He was saying you are called to be like me…you are to be my reflection…you are made in my image. I call you to be my Ambassador and Messenger. Even as you and I are Christians, but we are not Christs, so too Peter was a small stone, but He was not The Rock on which the Church of Christ would be established.
Let’s get back to the story. Peter was one of three who witnessed the transfiguration. Peter alone walked on the water. Jesus healed the mother-in-law of Peter. In every list when the Disciples are mentioned Peter is always the first one named. He was among the closest to Jesus, along with James and John. The other disciples looked up to him. He was seen as the most courageous and the toughest of all. In most passages he was either chosen or stepped up to be the spokesman on behalf of the others. He was a natural leader. He was also hot-tempered, quick and impulsive. Above all Jesus deeply loved him. So after 3 ½ years the time came for Jesus to suffer at the hands of cruel and evil humanity. One would expect all of His disciples to be willing, ready and courageous enough to lay down their lives for Him. But alas, on the night of the Last Supper Jesus told the 12 that He was about to be betrayed.
Matthew recalled: Slide 4a (verse) “31 Then Jesus told them, ‘This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. 32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.’ 33 Peter replied, ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.’ Slide 4b (verse) 34 ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ 35 But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you’” (Matthew 26 – NIV). That’s Peter. Impulsive and courageous. Yet, only a few hours later before sunrise, he denied Jesus 3 times! Jesus knew Peter better than he knew himself.
The bitter sting of betrayal Slide 5 (sub-title)
It’s a heartbreaking story. As a leader you pour your heart, your soul, your strength and your life into other people and when you need them most they turn around and betray you. They deny they know you. They disown you. They break covenant with you. They literally plunge a dagger deep in your back! I am a leader and I have been there many, many times. People I have loved and served for years, people I gave my life, my youth, my time, my money and my heart to, turned around, deceived and betrayed me. There are few things in this life that hurt as much as betrayal by a friend. Especially a close friend: someone on your team, someone in your family. It hurts. How many of you know what I am talking about? Imagine what Jesus must have felt. He was in the courtyard being tortured, mocked, abused and ridiculed. Just across the courtyard, by the fireplace, was His closest friend, the one who only hours before had said: Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. Jesus was on His own. Abandoned by the 12, abandoned by the 3, abandoned and betrayed even by the one He lovingly called “small rock.”
Why do people reject us? Why do they betray us? Why do they backstab us? There are many reasons including pride, jealousy, envy, competition, deception, etc. No matter what the reasons are, when we are betrayed, whenever we are deeply hurt by our closest friends or coworkers, we inevitably undergo several emotional experiences. We ... Slide 6 (7 points)
1. Experience Denial: At first it seems surreal. We cannot accept it. It’s too hard to believe. We play the film of events over and over in our heads trying to figure out what we did wrong to deserve such treatment.
2. Experience Loss: Betrayal is among the most devastating losses a person can experience in life. The damage done, to the innocent betrayed, is enormous and can leave the leader grieving and broken for months and even years.
3. Experience Hurt like Hell: I know it doesn’t sound nice to say but we all know that it is true: Betrayal hurts like hell because it comes from the pit of hell.
4. Experience Anger: The reason we experience the emotions of anger and even rage is because it shows that despite all that was done we still care for the one who hurt us. People with good hearts will be hurt time and again and the anger is justified.
5. Experience Brokenness: With every betrayal another dream is smashed and another illusion fades. We realize people are really not nice at all. Most people are egotistical and they only care about self. That’s why they betray because they are looking out for number one. Rarely do they give thought to what their actions do unto others.
6. Experience Inability to Trust Again: Trust, once lost, is not easily found. Betrayal causes us to build walls, erect shields and cloak ourselves in protective shells, all to prevent further pain. We eventually distrust one and all. We fail to function in innocence and we struggle to believe in good intentions.
7. Experience Sadness. The sorrow of betrayal doesn’t come all at once but in stages, as we begin to recognize the full extent of what we lost. Once our trust has been violated we withdraw and disengage and live lives stripped of joy, meaning and purpose. We stop believing in the inherent goodness of people.
The Path to Restoration Slide 7 (sub-title)
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a pathway past the pain. There is a way to press on triumphant. How did Jesus counter the 7 experiences I have just shared? How did He react to the betrayer, the backstabber and liar called Cephas? We can all learn from Jesus how to react so that we are not crushed by the pain and so we do not become bitter and broken like so many believers who fail to learn from the Lord what needs to be done.
All 3 synoptic Gospel writers mention how Peter “wept bitterly” after the rooster crowed. He was exposed, undone, ashamed and found wanting and guilty. He must have slithered away and probably fell into a deep depression. We know he was overcome by fear because he wasn’t there when Jesus was crucified. After the resurrection He was one of the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus alive. He was amazed and astounded. It couldn’t be possible. But everything had changed. He couldn’t look Jesus in the eye. He carried the weight of his sin in his soul. He wished others wouldn’t find out that He was a betrayer. I am sure it was a disappointed and broken Peter who went back to his former life as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee as we read in John 21. He was with 6 other disciples and they had not caught fish all night. Then, the next morning, a man appeared on the shore and told them throw their net on the other side of the boat. When they did, there as a miraculous catch of 153 big fish. They knew it was the resurrected Jesus. They made their way to the shore and Jesus had breakfast ready for them. He was standing over an open charcoal fire when they arrive.
Don’t miss the importance and significance of this. The word used here for charcoal fire is only used twice by John in his Gospel. It is used in John 18:18 and in John 21:9. In John 18 Peter stood near a charcoal fire to warm himself when he denied Jesus at the High Priest’s courtyard. Now, he once again was standing over a charcoal fire (The Greek word is ????a??á, anthrakia), and what is about to take place is a thread that will link the two climactic events of Peter’s life: his Betrayal and his Restoration. After they finished eating, Jesus pulled Peter aside for a personal confrontation, for a redeeming conversation.
Peter’s three-fold charge Slide 8 (sub-title)
On the night of the Last Supper Peter had denied Jesus 3 times. Now, in response to Jesus’ questioning, Peter affirms his love for Jesus 3 times. It was a way a revisiting the crime scene around the fire. The same eyes of Jesus, no longer bloodied and bruised, pierced deep into the soul of Peter and saw the pain, the guilt and shame he was carrying.
Three questions were posed: Peter do you love me? The dialogue between Jesus and Peter contained two different words for “love”: the word agapaô (the verb form of the noun agape) and phileô (the verb form of the noun philia). Do you love me with the love of a friend? Do you love me with a sacrificial love that can only comes from my Father?
To Peter’s 3 replies, “yes I do Lord” Jesus gave 3 charges: Peter, feed my lambs; Peter, take care of my sheep; Peter, feed my sheep. Then in John 21:19 Jesus said to him: “follow me.”
Forgiveness: the only Christian response to betrayal Slide 9 (sub-title)
We can only imagine what Peter must have felt at that moment. Jesus not only forgave him but also restored him bestowing on him all of the responsibilities, privileges and benefits of a Leader and he was ordained the first Pastor of a Christian community. Whereas most of us would have retaliated, or at the very least let Peter feel the pain of a good scolding, Jesus didn’t even mention it. The charcoal fire brought the moment of shame to his mind; the three-fold charge was the way to heal the three-fold denial: “I forgive you Peter and I restore you.”
I want to throw out a few words that come to my mind that remind me why I must forgive others as Jesus forgave Peter Slide 10 (sub-title)
1. Hindrance: Slide 10a. Because unforgiveness is the greatest hindrance to the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” If we don’t forgive we will not be forgiven and our lives will remain full of brokenness, shame, guilt, anger and bitterness.
2. Bondage: Slide 10b Because unforgiveness keeps us and others in bondage. John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
3. Reward: Slide 10c Because unforgiveness is the measure that will also be used towards us one day when we stand before Our Heavenly Father. What we dish out will also be our own reward. Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
4. Useless: Slide 10d Because unforgiveness renders all of our prayers useless and limits His power at work in and through us. Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
5. Victim: Slide 10e Because unforgiveness hurts us more than it hurts the ones who betray us. We are the greatest victims of unforgiveness.
Conclusion Slide 11 (sub-title)
I will draw to a close by affirming: it’s the old “ball and chain” illustration. We must forgive and release for our own good. Otherwise we are the ones lugging around the pain, the problems, the past and the consequences of our own choices. I titled the message: The High Priest’s Courtyard – The Essentiality of Forgiveness. Forgiveness my friends is not optional for the born-again believer. I would argue, and the Bible will prove me right, that forgiveness is the ultimate litmus test to prove whether you and I are truly born-again. May we never pray the Lord’s Prayer again if we refuse to forgive because it is an indictment against us: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” So as you leave: who do you need to forgive today without delay?
