¡§The Most Important Day In the Most Important Life Ever Lived!¡¨
¡§Denying Jesus¡¨
Matthew 26:31-35; 51-58; 69-75
February 17, 2002
The most important day in the most important life ever lived was the day Jesus died on Calvary¡¦s cross that our sin debt might be paid. It is a day worthy of our consideration; today, we continue our walk with Jesus to Calvary by considering another in a series of terribly painful moments for Jesus.
It¡¦s one thing to face the assault of an enemy; while Judas had walked with Jesus and the other disciples for three years, he had never been one of them; he¡¦d been an impostor from the word ¡§go¡¨. And Jesus had, of course, known that this was coming, and so, painful as it must have been, and coming on the heels of the agony of Gethsemane, we can still say that it is one thing to be betrayed by one who is an enemy. It is quite another to be stabbed in the back by one¡¦s closest friend! Jesus knew it was coming, to be sure; still, it must have hurt deeply. Peter was one of the inner three, the one who had showed maybe the keenest insight into the reality of Jesus¡¦ identity and work. But it was Peter whose words of denial had to cut deeply into the heart of the Master. Stand with me as we read!
Twenty centuries of time stoke our courage. We are made brave people by the vindication provided by Jesus¡¦ resurrection. Living, as we do, this side of Easter, it is easy to point our fingers at Peter, at the cowardly disciples, but honestly, had you been in their shoes, can you be certain that you¡¦d have acted differently?
Yes, Christ had demonstrated His power; they¡¦d been amazed the first time they¡¦d seen Him heal a lame man, awestruck when the first blind man had opened his eyes to see, speechless as Lazarus staggered bound head and foot from his gravesite. And yet, though they¡¦d seen these demonstrations of His power, He¡¦d not seemed interested in taking on the Roman empire¡Xhey, wasn¡¦t this what a Messiah was supposed to do? He sure didn¡¦t act like a human ruler. Now, as a small militia came to cart Jesus off, He didn¡¦t even put up a fight¡Xwhat, had He no power when push really came to shove?
Oh, they¡¦d heard His profound teaching as well; they¡¦d had a hard time containing themselves, stifling a snicker when He had confounded the Pharisees, befuddled the Sadducees, and shut the mouths of the pompous, pious priests and scribes. Yet, on the other hand, some of His teaching had been hard to understand; they¡¦d missed His point with such regularity that they¡¦d lost count, and lately He¡¦d been doing all of this morbid death-talk. Where would that leave them? His kingdom didn¡¦t seem to be getting off to much of a start when it couldn¡¦t even deal with this little armed band. They were undermanned and poorly-armed.
Peter is known for his denial, of course, and we¡¦ll talk about that, but at least he had the guts to brandish a sword and try to do something! Jesus, of course, told him to put it away. The others just high-tailed it when trouble came¡Xhonestly, honestly, what would you have done?
Peter gets a bad rap, I think. We know about his denial of Christ, and it was awful. We know him to have been a brash, impetuous, overconfident sort¡Xhe suffered regularly from foot-in-mouth disease. And he blew it¡Xoh, how he blew it. But consider¡K
„h Yeah, he blew it, taking his eyes off of Jesus and sinking in the waves¡Xbut only two people in the history of the world have ever walked on water (the other disciples were still in the boat).
„h Yeah, he had the utter gall to rebuke Jesus, and Jesus had reprimanded him for voicing words inspired by Satan¡Xbut he was the first to voice faith in Christ.
„h Yes, he denied Jesus, but he did so in a situation that the rest of the disciples didn¡¦t even have the guts to face!
Peter never intended to deny Jesus¡Xbut deny, he did. Are there lessons for us to learn?
What do we learn from Peter¡¦s denial?
I. The possibility that a believer would deny Jesus.
No Christian is immune from the possibility of denying Jesus. The greatest men of God in the Bible had times when they failed God. Peter had been one of those the closest to Christ, and yet he had failed. Dare you say, ¡§oh, but I¡¦d never deny Jesus¡¨? Allow me to suggest you go back and carefully read and re-read I Corinthians 10:12; if you say there¡¦s no chance you¡¦d deny Him, I beg to differ. In fact, to one degree or another, every time I sin I deny Jesus¡Xperhaps I deny His authority over my life in that area, or I deny His sufficiency, or His ability, or His power, or¡K
Ever heard anybody say, ¡§there are just too many hypocrites in church¡¨? You know what the answer is? ¡§No, there aren¡¦t enough hypocrites in church.¡¨ ¡¥S¡¦cuse me? That¡¦s right; there aren¡¦t enough hypocrites in church. While maybe it¡¦s a stretch to label a person a hypocrite on the basis of one minor indiscretion, still, we act hypocritically every time we sin, for we profess one thing and do another! In that sense, we all act as hypocrites, and every person in the world is guilty of hypocrisy at one time or another. And every person ought to be in God¡¦s house worshipping Him! So tell your friends that there ought to be more hypocrites in church! And tell them that there is room for them, for they qualify!
Let¡¦s look next at
II. The factors which might lead a believer to deny Jesus.
Perhaps we¡¦ll find ourselves in these factors.
A. Overconfidence
Notice his words in verses 31-35. In the parallel passage in Mark 14:31, Peter states, ¡§even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You.¡¨ And we can see what¡¦s taking place here: Peter stokes his own courage, puffs up his own chest, and says, ¡§I can handle this one myself. I know I¡¦m too big a man to deny Jesus!¡¨ Think you can handle Satan by yourself? Think you don¡¦t really need the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit? Think again!
B. Prayerlessness
He¡¦d had the opportunity to pray waiting for Jesus in Gethsemane¡Xbut he used it as an opportunity for a nap. Jesus had said, ¡§Peter, watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation.¡¨ Peter¡¦s response was to saw logs!
And did you struggle¡Xand lose¡Xto a temptation this past week? How is your prayer life?
C. Bad influences
We read about this in Luke 22:54-ff. Matthew Henry wrote, ¡§Those that warm themselves with evildoers grow cold toward good people and good things, and those that are fond of the devil¡¦s fireside are in danger of the devil¡¦s fire!¡¨ The powderkeg of Peter¡¦s impulsiveness was lit by the fire of bad influence as he warmed his hands with the enemies of the truth, and it exploded in Peter¡¦s denial not once but three times.
I¡¦ve said this before, but it bears regular repeating: the person you will be five years from now will be determined by the things you read, the things you hear, and the people with whom you hang around. Feed your mind on junk, and it¡¦ll come out in your life.
Can I go a bit further on this point? Sometimes, to be sure, we as believers do feed our minds on MTV and Friends and Oprah and the soaps, things which are detrimental influences on our walks with God. But sometimes we might not feed our minds on junk so much as on stuff that is the equivalent of spiritual junk food¡Xit might not make you sick, but it won¡¦t help you grow. Buckle up, here, and try to hear what I¡¦m saying. There are a lot worse things you can do than watch ¡§Touched by an Angel¡¨ or read Christian fiction, but there are a lot better things too. I¡¦m not impressed with ¡§Touched by an Angel¡¨, but if you want to watch it, fine. And I don¡¦t care if you read ¡§Left Behind¡¨; that¡¦s fine. And grab every Point of Grace CD there is, for all I care, and every Veggie Tales video too; Larry the Cucumber cracks me up. But I wonder if there are Christians who can quote more lyrics from Stephen Curtis Chapman than they can Bible verses? Something is amiss there! Or if there are believers who never miss the latest in Christian fiction but have no clue what C.S. Lewis, or Francis Schaeffer, or Ravi Zacharias, or Charles Colson have to say. A George Barna survey published this week reports that, among self-professed born-again Christian adults, only 32% said that they believed in moral absolutes. Want to hear something chilling? Among self-professed born-again teenagers, the percentage who said that they believed in the existence of absolute standards of right and wrong was in the single digits. 34% of born-again teenagers said that, when it comes to decision-making, they would do ¡§whatever feels right or comfortable in that situation¡¨; only 12% of these kids said that they would attempt to do what the Bible said they ought to do. In that context, what are you feeding your mind with? Is it the Word of God? Is it good, solid, meaty Christian literature that will produce significant change in your life, or is it so much Christian fluff and folderol? I¡¦d rather one church member at FCC read Mere Christianity than 50 read The Prayer of Jabez.
What is influencing you? Are the influences in your life not only not sinful ones, but are they wholesome influences which would serve to edify and build you up and prepare you for what lies ahead in post-Christian America?
III. The motives which might lead a believer to deny Jesus.
Fear? Certainly, it must have been there, though we¡¦ll at least give him credit for staying closer than the other disciples. Some suggest a motive that borders on ¡§convenience¡¨; he felt no compulsion to incriminate himself in front of these people who had neither the moral nor the legal right to extract a confession from him. Probably, it was some combination of these two.
What is it in your life that causes you to deny your association with Jesus? Pride? Fear? Greed? Lust? Envy? Laziness? Anger? We would do well to search our own hearts and consider our own motives, asking God¡¦s forgiveness for denying our Lord on the basis of our sin and self-seeking. But the story isn¡¦t complete if we leave out the last point, which is
IV. The potential for restoration, even for the believer who would deny Jesus.
Upon Peter¡¦s third denial there, off in the distance, a rooster crowed. According to Luke, Jesus turned and His eyes fell upon Peter. The searing gaze of the Master pierced the soul of Simon Peter. In so doing, all of Peter¡¦s self-delusion, shame, and fear were exposed. Notice Peter¡¦s reaction in verse 75: ¡§he went out and wept bitterly.¡¨ It was a sorry episode, one of shame and cowardice.
But wait¡Kthat¡¦s not the end of this story! Peter¡¦s sorrow was a godly one¡XII Corinthians 7 tells us that the godly kind of sorrow brings about repentance, a change of mind and heart that issues in a change of life. God forgave him and restored him and Peter the denier became a godly fool for Jesus!
There are some friends, likely some in this place, whose theology allows for the possibility that one could act in such a way as to slip from the grasp of God and thereby lose one¡¦s salvation. I respectfully disagree, and point to Simon Peter as evidence. Peter had no fall from grace; he willfully distanced himself from any association with Jesus! And yet He was kept by the strong arm of God, and not only kept, but he would play a leading role in the young church. Peter was
„h Among the first witnesses to the resurrection; typically, he barged right into the empty tomb, but found no Jesus there!
„h An evangelist who led 3000 people to faith in one day
„h A man who endured agony and pain for Christ
„h A man who penned the very words of Scripture; two books bear his name.
„h A man whose life ended being crucified upside down, we are given to understand, rather than to deny Jesus again!
You want evidence of the historical truthfulness of the Resurrection? I¡¦ll give you evidence; his name is Peter, and he was transformed from a gutless coward into one who was a firebrand for the cause of Christ, dying for his Lord. He knew the Resurrection to be true; he had seen the resurrected Christ. People don¡¦t give their lives for that which they know to be lies; the charge that the disciples stole the body of Christ and staged a cover-up does not square with what we know to be true of human nature. Peter was a changed man because he was an Easter man.
And God is still in the business of changing lives. He can take your failure and sin and make you a new person.
Roy Riegels was his name, and he was quite the athlete, starting at safety for the Golden Bears of Cal in the 1929 Rose Bowl against the Ramblin¡¦ Wreck of Georgia Tech. Early in the game, Tech fumbled the football, and our man Roy scooped up the ball and returned it 65 yards before being tackled¡Kby his own teammate! Roy Riegels had run the ball the wrong way, and the play ended up costing Cal two points for a safety.
In the locker room at halftime, a distraught Roy Riegels wrapped himself in a blanket, and ashamed of his failure, sat alone in a corner and began to sob. The room hushed as his coach delivered the halftime talk, which he concluded by saying, ¡§OK, same starters in the second half.¡¨ Roy Riegels spoke up, ¡§No, Coach, I can¡¦t start¡¨, to which the coach replied, ¡§Son, this game is only half over. You¡¦ve got work to do!¡¨ And they said that no one on either team played a harder second half than did the man they called Wrong Way Roy Riegels.
What a mistake? Yeah. But what a coach! What a blunder, Peter? Yeah, but what a God! A God Who, no matter what your sin or failure, will forgive, wash, make you new, and restore you to Himself. That¡¦s what Jesus came for! Are you a failure today? The Coach is calling. Get up. Lace up your shoes. We need you on the team. The game isn¡¦t over yet!
¡§What do I do with a message like this?¡¨
1. Take a reality check. While it is doubtful that many of us would in such bold fashion as Peter deny even knowing Christ, we ought to admit that there are more subtle ways in which we by word or deed deny Him. In what ways do you deny your knowledge of Jesus in your daily life?
2. Take a look at the factors which contributed to Peter¡¦s denial and consider which might be true in your life right now.
3. What are the things that most tempt you to deny Jesus and His Lordship over your life? Fear? Anger? Guilt? Resentment? Materialism? Lust? Ask yourself those hard questions.
4. Do you believe that you are beyond the pale of God¡¦s forgiveness? It is difficult to imagine doing something so blatant as three times denying Jesus at the time of His suffering. And yet Peter found forgiveness and usefulness in God¡¦s kingdom. What does this lesson teach you about God¡¦s work in your own life?
