Costly Actions
Matthew 26:31-35, 57-75
Chad H. Ballard
Introduction
Language is such an important thing. It is how we communicate. It’s how we get our thoughts and ideas through to others.
And if you’ve ever tried to talk to people who speak another language, you know how difficult it is to try to make them understand what you are thinking.
The Apostle Paul was a man who could speak many languages. When Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem, falsely accused of bringing a Greek into the temple, it was to his benefit that he spoke Greek so that the commander of those who arrested him could understand him and know that he was a Roman citizen, which gave Paul special rights that he often used.
And when he was allowed to address the mob that had accused him, he spoke Aramaic, an ancient Hebrew dialect that was mostly used by the priests. It was the language that Jesus had spoken. And it let the Jews know that he was one of them, so as to earn their trust.
And so in this we see that if you want to get the Gospel to the people, you have to speak a language they understand. And language barriers are sometimes hard to overcome.
I read a story this week about a Mexican bandit who had been coming across the border to rob banks and then running back to Mexico with the loot.
A huge reward had been offered for his capture, so a Texas Ranger decided to set out after him. He waited in a cantina until the bandit came in. Then he put his gun to his head and said, “Where did you hide the money?”
There was a problem. The Ranger only spoke English and the bandit only spoke Spanish.
A bilingual lawyer happened to be in the cantina and offered his assistance to the Ranger. The ranger said, “Ask him where he hid the money.” So the lawyer did.
The bandit, in Spanish answered, “Under a log, out behind the cantina.” The ranger said, “What’d he say? What’d he say?”
The lawyer said, “He says, ‘I’m not telling. I don’t believe that Gringo has the guts to shoot me!”
If we don’t speak the language, we can’t be effective for God.
I’m afraid sometimes the language of our mouths is foreign to the language that our actions are speaking.
The Bible tells us of a time when Peter allowed his words to speak one language and his actions to speak another. The account begins in Matthew 26:31-35 (read).
Peter’s words were certainly speaking a language that was bold for Christ, weren’t they? As a matter of fact, Peter’s words take on almost an arrogance, insinuating that it might be possible for one of the others to betray Jesus, but certainly not Peter.
But as you know, actions always speak louder than words.
And this morning, as we take a closer look at Peter’s denial of Jesus, I want to share with you some ACTIONS that lead to denial of the Lord.
I. The DISTANCE we follow the Lord will be safe. (Read 26:58) Peter was following at a distance! He sat down with the officers, the enemy! What happened to the Peter who cut off Malchus’ ear? Why in the world isn’t Peter right up in the mix defending Jesus? Well probably because of the same reasons many Christians are trying to follow Jesus at a safe distance.
A. We want to avoid the ASSOCIATION we have with Him. Peter didn’t want anyone to know that he was associated with Jesus. He was probably afraid of what might be done to him if the Sanhedrin knew that he was one of Jesus’ disciples. He knew how ruthless these men could be.
1. I believe that most of us, at one time or another, have felt the same way. Now I don’t mean to say that you have feared for your life if you admit openly to being a Christian.
2. But what I do mean is that many of us have chosen at some point to just remain quiet about our faith when we felt the urging to speak up.
3. We find it easy to talk about Jesus when we’re sitting in Sunday school. We find it easy to talk about Jesus in Discipleship Training time. But how easy is it to talk about Jesus in the work place? How easy is it to talk about Jesus when we’re not surrounded by church folk?
4. And it’s at these times that we are denying Christ by avoiding an association with Him.
5. Now I know what some are thinking. You might be thinking, “Well if I talk about Jesus all of the time, people might think I’m some kind of fanatic or something.”
6. And that’s exactly the attitude I’m talking about! We want to follow Jesus but at a safe enough distance not to be thought of as different than your friends!
7. But when we need a blessing from Jesus; when a loved one is dying and we need comfort; when the diagnosis is not good and we need healing; when a friend is angry and we need some peace, then we want to reel Jesus back in close. Suddenly we don’t care what people think.
8. Matthew 7:22-23 says, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never new you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Are you denying Christ by avoiding association with Him?
B. We want to avoid the ACCUSATION made because of Him. Read vv. 69-72. Peter was accused of being a Christian. How terrible! And in our minds as we read this we think, “Well that was only because he was afraid for his life. We can surely understand that can’t we?”
1. I’ll concede that we can find compassion for Peter since he feared for his life. But what about the times in our own lives when we try to avoid the accusation of being a devoted follower of Christ when we didn’t have that much to lose?
2. Satan is telling you right now, “You’ve never done that!” But most of us have. Most of us have done something or didn’t do something, so that people didn’t think we were some kind of religious fanatic.
3. Let me bring it home. How many of you are willing to tell your friends, “No, I’m sorry but I can’t come to your Super Bowl Party because I need to be in church.” “No fellas, I can’t go hunting with you this afternoon, we have church on Sunday night.” “No I can’t go to the movies with you, because they won’t be over in time for me to get back to church.
4. Have you ever gone ahead anyway because you didn’t want to be accused of being “too hung up on church”? Then you’ve denied Christ.
C. We want to avoid the ALTERCATION we may have because of Him. Read vv. 73-74. Following Jesus doesn’t mean that you have go out looking to be a martyr, looking to get in a disagreement so that you can prove how spiritual you are. But if you serve Jesus faithfully for long enough, you’ll eventually face some resistance.
1. The best example I can think of is the times in my life that I’ve tried to share Jesus with a family member for the 32nd time and they finally say something like, “Would you quit preaching at me!”
2. That cuts us to the quick doesn’t it? It does me. I hate to have altercations with people over Jesus. And the truth is, I find myself failing to be aggressive enough in witnessing so as to avoid these kinds of situations.
3. But sometimes it happens. Sometimes, the flesh just gets hold of a person and they tell you to stop preaching at them.
4. But if we go through life not telling people about Jesus because we don’t want them to hurt our pride, then we will never share Jesus with anyone.
5. When our focus becomes more about the need to avoid an altercation, avoid a disagreement over religion, keep our pride in tact; than about sharing Jesus with the world, then we deny Jesus by our actions.
Another action that leads us to deny Christ is:
II. The DIRECTION we follow the Lord will be shaky. As most of you know, our little dog we had kept for 8 years was run over about 2 wks ago. And now we have a new, bigger dog. I tried to walk this new dog, Princess, on a leash a few times, but she ended up walking me. Now if I were going the direction that she wanted to go, I didn’t have any problem. But if I wanted to go one way and she wanted to go another, then her following got a little shaky.
Well that’s how we treat Jesus. If we need something from Him, we are right there by His side. But when He desires our service to Him, we can pull the leash right out of His hand can’t we?
We need to realize that Jesus is in a war with Satan for the souls of men and we are His frontline. And we need to decide if we are really on His side; are we really there to serve Him, or are we looking for a favor where our eternal destiny is concerned and then deserting Him when He needs us.
Our direction is obvious to everyone but ourselves.
A. It will be evidenced by where we SIT.
1. In v. 69, we see that while Jesus was on trial for the souls of men, Peter, who’s mouth said that he wouldn’t deny Jesus if he had to die beside Him, had his backside sitting out in the courtyard!
2. Peter could have testified to all of the miracles he had seen Jesus perform. He could have told the Sanhedrin that those who bore false witness were lying.
3. But instead, he chose to sit safely out in the courtyard where he could avoid the conflict.
4. And just like Peter, we often deny Jesus by choosing to sit at a safe distance, out of the fray of service.
5. We sit in church and say, “Yes I’m a Christian. Yes I love Jesus.” But then we go out into the community and our actions tell a much different story.
B. Our direction will be evidenced by where we STAND. The things that people will decide to take a stand for and not to take a stand for just amaze me.
1. There is a petition circulating in the county to allow liquor sales in the county. There is one on the counter down at the Gas Lane station in Bude.
2. Now the argument that is being presented is that when the lake is built, the government can allow the sale of alcohol on those premises, so it isn’t fair that they make all the money and our local business not get their fair share.
3. Well the truth is that the government has almost always respected and abided by the laws of the county in deciding whether or not to allow the sale of alcohol on it’s properties. But that’s beside the point.
4. The point is that when we vote to allow alcohol sales because of the monetary issues rather than to stand up for the deeper moral issue, we deny Christ.
C. It will be evidenced by what we SAY.
1. V. 73 tells us that it was Peter’s voice that gave him away as being a follower of Jesus.
2. I’ve had people come up to me not knowing that I am a pastor and just cuss up a storm. Not at me, but just in conversation.
3. And boy it’s amazing how fast they can stop when they find out who I am. Sometimes they apologize and I just tell them that God would have heard them whether I was there or not.
4. Does your mouth have one vocabulary here at church and a different one at home or at work? If it does, then you are denying Christ.
The final action that leads us to deny Christ is:
III. The DEMEANOR we have as we follow the Lord will be sour. What I mean is that we serve the Lord, but we would rather be doing something else.
A. We will begin to FORSAKE who we are. Our resentment of the higher standard we are called to live by causes us to turn from Jesus and to forsake our calling so that we can live the way we want to.
B. We will begin to FABRICATE what we are. We become hypocrites, living the way we want to at home and putting on our churchy attitude to come here on Sunday.
1. We build up in our minds this imaginary image of why it’s ok to let our words say one thing, while our actions say something else.
2. We’re still ok. We’re still a Christian. We’re still going to heaven. But we’re still denying Christ.
C. We will begin to FIGHT what we are. We start fighting the Holy Spirit’s conviction in our lives that we need to change.
1. And this war inside our hearts causes us to start looking for ways to shun our Christian responsibilities.
2. And to distance ourselves from the church. We deny Christ.
Conclusion
A pompous-looking old Sunday school teacher was trying to impress on a class of young boys the importance of living a Christian life. He asked, “Why do you think people call me a Christian?” One boy replied back, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”
Could the same be said of you?
Jim Futral has preached a sermon about this old rooster called “The Rooster that Preached”.
I guess, in so much as a sermon is supposed to be a wake up call to the church, that old rooster did do some preaching.
This morning I have laid out 12 ways that we still deny Christ. Sadly, if you’re not fighting the Holy Spirit’s conviction, some of them rang true in your heart today.
But God is a God of Second Chances. He reinstated Peter as we’ll discuss next Sunday, and He’ll reinstate you this morning if you would only turn to Him.
Let this invitation be the rooster’s crow in your life this morning. I know it’s sometimes hard to admit to yourself that you’ve been denying Christ. I’ve been there, I know. And I’m not so arrogant as to say that I’ll never do it again.
But I also know that it’s even harder to continue living with your denial. And that conviction that you feel from the Holy Spirit isn’t going to leave you alone until you ask Jesus to forgive your denial and to restore your peace.
You come as the Holy Spirit convicts you this morning.
Pray.
