Peter Denies Jesus

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for well I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Mark and to chapter 14 as we continue our studies in Mark's Gospel heading for the opening verses of 16 all being well that are there waiting for us on Easter Sunday which is coming up fairly swiftly now final Sunday in March I think from memory this morning we're in verses 66 to 72 and I'm going to read them as you follow along page 85 - if you need that page reference in the Bibles that are around you and as Peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came and seeing Peter warming himself she looked at him and said you also were with the Nazarene Jesus but he didn't and I did saying I neither know nor understand what you mean and he went out into the Gateway and the rooster crowed and the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders this man is one of them but again he denied it and after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter certainly you are one of them for you're a Galilean but he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear I do not know this man of whom you speak and immediately the rooster crowed a second time and Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times and he broke down and wept amen well a brief prayer make the book live to me O Lord show me yourself within your word show me myself and show me my Savior and make the book live to me for Jesus sake amen well I wonder if we were to assess the keys to Peters usefulness as we think of him in all of his powerful declaration of the story of redemption on the day of Pentecost as we see him there at the beginning of the book of Acts I wonder how much at significance we would attach to this particular section that we have just read here at the end of chapter 14 I have a sneaking suspicion that many of us would have if we had been discussing this in a more interactive setting many of us would have been tempted to say I think probably the launching pad for his usefulness was in his great declaration when in Caesarea Philippi he was enabled by the father to say you are the Christ the Son of the Living God someone else may say well I wonder if it wasn't the privilege that he enjoyed on the Mount of Transfiguration to be taken in that intimate setting with the Lord Jesus Christ himself and to encounter all that unfolded there and that I think there's certainly a lot of consideration but as I've thought about it this week I've come to the conclusion that a large part of Peters usefulness may be actually traced to the scene that is described for us here that the subsequent usefulness of Peter is tied in significant measure to the brokenness of Peter that is recorded for us sir edward elgar who was a significant composer was once sitting listening to a soloist a young lady singing one of his songs that he had written someone had suggested that he would come and listen to her I think it was in rehearsal and it is recorded that she sang with a beautiful voice wonderful pitch and faultless technique and the individual who'd invited the composer to listen turned to him and said him what do you think what's your assessment Elgar responded she will be great when something happens to break her heart she will be great when something happens to break her heart in other words her faultless technique her pitch her skill her wonderful voice still needed another element in order to transform who she was and what she was as a singer of songs now I think that our generation this generation more than perhaps any other in most of our lifetimes is is really unwilling to embrace such an idea we recoil from such a notion that brokenness may be the key to usefulness we're encouraged all the time to make sure that when we write our resume everybody knows that we're virtually flawless that we are absolutely even the things that are that we've done badly we've done them wonderfully badly and that we are able to be as positively negative as it is possible to be and so it is that peggy noonan writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2009 observing this rights for 30 years the self-esteem movement told the young they're perfect in every way it's yielding something new in history an entire generation with no proper sense of inadequacy no proper sense of inadequacy nothing that has happened to break the heart to break the pride to break the arrogance and so we find ourselves looking in the mirror and singing the song my life filled with only me and that's the way we're told it ought to be well it's fair to say that to this point in the record of Peters life we would not be accurate in using the word inadequacy to describe him there is really very little that speaks of inadequacy either in his background in business and so on in actual fight I think the word that we could best use is the word audacity audacity and it is the first of three words that I have this morning to help us trace a line through this passage audacity in other words Peter displays in his life what is defined in Yiddish as hutzpah right I never knew that word before I moved to Cleveland but here in Cleveland I find that it's used every so often at his best it depicts a reckless courage at the high end and at the low end at its worst it is representative of an arrogant self-confidence so you have that kind of continuum that is best reckless courageous go for it at its worst stuck on myself unable to do any wrong knowing the answer to just about every question and able to contradict all the teachers now I'm suggesting that this word fits then you would have to say well you have to give evidence of that and which I'm happy to do beginning in chapter 8 and verse 31 a little rehearsal of what we've seen before this kind of audacity is displayed as Jesus is rebuked by Peter hey even the terminology ought to stand us up on our heels Peter has made this great confession of Jesus as the Christ the Son of the Living God and he is commended for this and then Jesus in verse 31 of Mark 8 began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again mark tells us that he said this plainly in other words no possibility of misunderstanding what he was saying and then here you have the audacity of Peter and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him you have a very same thing when he seeks to correct Jesus and we can fast forward into chapter 14 and 2 verse 29 14 and 29 or we should really go to 27 jesus said to them 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 and here you have the audacity of the man Peter said to them even though they all fall away I will not in other words he contradicts Jesus Jesus says you will all fall away he says you got that wrong Jesus now I I don't think this is at the high end of whose father this is at the bottom end of it right this is an arrogant self-confidence you see it if you stay in the same verse in the way in which he sets himself apart from others even if they all go you don't need worry about me they all fall away I will not so it's no surprise that although mark does not identify him in the incident in the garden on the occasion of the arrest of Jesus it is no surprise that the other gospel writer tells us that who was it that gets his sword out and lots of the the ear of the high priests servant none other than mr. whose paw Jesus has explained to them many times his kingdom is not of this world if it were there would be an occasion for fighting there's no need for fighting and let your kingdom come let your will be done and let me help out in the process here let's try and take a head off or at least an ear off let's make the point who is it none other than Peter and so we now find him in the courtyard in the verse that we left from last time verse 54 Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of a high priest and he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire that's pretty gutsy isn't it he sees at least he's holding true to what he said even if they all go I'll still be there well that's exactly what has happened they've all gone one to never come back again and ten into hiding and just Peter is left he takes his place amongst the guards it's pretty good and they're in the courtyard warming himself in the cool evening by the fireplace so let's give credit where credit is due before we criticize him for his collapse let's commend him for his courage he may as it says here have followed at a distance but nevertheless he still followed let's be honest many of us most of us would never have been in the courtyard with him so before we get on our high horse saying oh I can't believe that somebody who is so those old and deny deny deny I mean this is amazing to me are you kidding we would have been with the tent behind closed doors he at least has followed at a distance and not simply at a mile and a half back waiting to see if the news will filter out but as Mart tells us right into the courtyard of the high priest that's good what he doesn't realize is his own vulnerability you see his his audacity there says to him in his psyche I've got this covered I can actually handle this you remember when Jesus has said I want you to watch and pray I want you to come with me taking him as part of the the inner the inner group once again in the Garden of Gethsemane and in all of the sleeping that had followed Jesus back in verse 38 or so had said to them listen fellows the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Peter hadn't fully figured out just exactly what that meant in his life but his spirit was definitely willing otherwise we wouldn't find him where he is but his flesh as we're about to see was weak you have to love Peter for his devotion yes to love a fellow like this but he is an illustration of the fact that the best of men are men at best and that is true for women as well so if audacity fits what then of the scene recorded for us that we're now considering well surely there's only one word that is able to encompass what takes place and that is the word disloyalty disloyalty despite his audacious expressions of commitment and faithfulness and so on this is an illustration of his disloyalty rather than his loyalty I wonder did Paul have this incident in his mind when he wrote to the Corinthian believers let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls because Peter was pretty sure that he was standing tall unlike the others and now in the flickering firelight he has given the opportunity a three-fold opportunity to identify himself with his Lord and Master but he collapses like a broken deck chair doesn't he all of this great and brave of affirmation now is silenced and this is a monumental collapse that's why Peter is remembered far more for his failure than he is for his faithfulness it's a reminder of what we've seen already in our studies that you may spend a significant part of your life building character and a reputation and you and I may destroy it in a matter of moments 2011 there was an earthquake in Washington DC actually in the Virginia area it wasn't hugely significant it was it was five point eight on the Richter scale I wrote it down at the time that's why I know so those of you say well where do you come up with that illustration just in passing you know they go in a book and find out about an earthquake he looked up earthquake and then found it no no when things happen I write them down then so that if I ever need to remember I'll remember two years later that there was an earthquake and it was five point eight on the Richter scale otherwise how would I ever know but anyway that's by the way for those of you who are working on your teaching plans it was a 23rd of August so it was exactly a week after my wedding anniversary and one of the things that it did was it completely rocked the National Cathedral in in DC the reason I had interest in it was because I had been once in the National Cathedral and I was struck by the building and so on and so I just registered for me but what registered for me was the publicity that the National Cathedral then put out in order to encourage people to date to its refurbishment and it was very it was a very interesting piece and this was the tagline that they used see the lifelong impact a few seconds can make see the lifelong impact a few seconds can make the earthquake didn't last beyond just a matter of seconds but it was sufficient enough to rock the very foundation of that structure so much so that it has cost multi-million dollars in order to put it back to where it was before and that is exactly what is happening here see the impact see the lifelong impact in Peters life and in the lives of others that just a few seconds that moments might make here in this scene now something else that we ought to just pay attention to is the fact that as we've read Mark's Gospel together we have acknowledged that that marks primary source for his material is Peter himself the mark is not a first-hand observer of all of this material by he has had it reported to him he writes as it's been reported and not exclusively but largely that material has come from Peter so you imagine that Peter is to tell mark and tell others as well I was so proud of myself I was so sure that I would do fine but I gotta tell you I collapsed I denied Jesus I didn't ID him ultimately with oaths and curses I look at it there's a progression in it you will see that G that Peter is warming himself at the fire one of the servant girls it doesn't say a big soldier a big intimidating soldier it doesn't say the high priest himself it doesn't say somebody of stature came and cornered him and confronted him it just says that a girl maybe she making up this fire maybe she's bringing materials for something she sees Peter warming himself and she looks at him that verb air she looked at him as a is a is an important little verb means you know that she made our eye contact with it she looked right at him she saw him perhaps his face was illuminated by the firelight and there was just something about him something that registered after all Jesus and the Galileans had been making quite an impact in Jerusalem in these past few days leading up to the Passover it would have been impossible for anybody living in Jerusalem not to know that Jesus the Nazarene Jesus from Galilee and his entourage were really making their presence felt in Jerusalem and so it would be that they were identifiable and certainly Peter was in some measure identifiable to this girl it I don't know how to convey this in American terms but in British terms what you what is actually unfolding here in the in the Jerusalem the Galilean contingent in Jerusalem would be the akin to a group of people from Yorkshire in the north of England hanging around in London the capital city of England and they would be identifiable in some measure by their dress especially if they came from a farming community and they would be identified by their accents so it would be impossible for them to move around incognito people say well you're not from here are you that's exactly what is happening that's the significance of these little statements here about Jesus being the Nazarene about these people coming from Galilee he's making the point that they were identifiable by the by their distinctiveness so she looks at him and she says you also were with the Nazarene Jesus well the answer was yes I was in fight bike a long time ago in our studies in the fourteenth verse of Mark chapter three when Jesus calls the twelve you have the record of the calling of the twelve it says right there in mark that he called them to be apostles and to be with him to be with him that was the distinguishing feature of their lives now that they were called into the company of Jesus first to be with him then that they might go for him then that they might tell others about him I wonder what that how that rang in Peters mind when she said you also work with him and he blusters and Bluffs it off I neither know nor understand what you mean I don't understand your question what are you talking about and you will notice he went out into the portrait core into the Gateway and the rooster crowed now that should that should have helped him right there but there is no indication of a response she says you were with him he denies it and he relocates but he doesn't run for it I think I would have made a run for it at that point you know okay I've done pretty good they all were hiding I showed up right into the tent right into the court that this is going to get crazy here you know if I'm gonna if I'm gonna roll over as it were and and and deny on the strength of a simple assertion like this by a servant girl goodness knows what will happen but no no Peter no no no no he's gonna he's gonna hit the next pitch he will hit the next pitch he knows he has the hood spot yeah that was a strike but watch what I do with the next one and what does he do with the next one exact same thing strike two 69 the servant girls saw him presumably she's moving back and forth he's in the gateway now she saw him and she broadens the implication and she began again to say to the bystanders to the folks around and about he said that this this man was one of them there's no allegation in it it's just an observation this fellow is one of them they're 70 but again he denied it and then it broadens out again and after a little while the bystanders said to Peter certainly you're one of them for you are a Galilean if we don't know you by your face we at least know you by your accent and then you have his final denial but he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear what what is recorded for us here is not that he was guilty of profanity using filthy language or something but rather that he would be saying something may I die if what I say is false or that he's saying God is my witness to these things in other words he he he calls on something higher and greater than himself to affirm his denial remember Jesus had said let your yes be yes and your no be no he fails in this as well unaware of what it means that his spirit is willing that his flesh is weak unaware of his own personal vulnerability he'd been absolutely emphatically denying that he would deny Jesus in fact again his denial of being a denier verse 31 they were still in 14 and he said emphatically if I must die with you I will not deny you I will not deny you that that's what makes this so so dramatic so memorable there's not so much as denial under pressure as it is the absolute vast collapse from these proud audacious affirmations of what he's going to be able to do and what he ultimately does if I must die with you I will not deny you but he collapse like a pack of cards the progression you can rehearse it for yourself is pretty straightforward it's a sad progression he followed Jesus as he said he was going to do he denied Jesus the rooster crawled as Jesus had said it would that rang the bell for him and he then remembered and then he went he followed he denied he remembered he went and that is how chapter 14 ends and that is how mark ends anything that we have in relationship to Peter except for one little statement that I'll point out to you in a moment as we close because I want to be able to say with the late Paul Harvey and now you know the rest of the story because it would be wrong for us to finish here why it finishes here in mark 14 yes but we're not studying mark 14 in isolation from the from the entire drama are we we've said all the time that every passage of scripture we need to understand in the context of what says before it and what follows it so our last word is recovery recovery audacity disloyalty recovery now as we've gone through this study we've been moving back and forth between the various gospels the different records the little bits and pieces that are recorded as one gospel writer that fastens on something that another gospel writer determines not to include and here is a case in point let me quote to you from Luke's record of this Luke 22 Peter said man I don't know what you're talking about and immediately while he was still speaking the rooster crowed and then here look with his eye for detail this is verse 61 of Luke 22 and the Lord turned and looked at Peter the Lord turned and looked at Peter that's the same verb as the lady the servant girl she seeing him she looked at him now we've got eye contact again now what do you think Peter saw in the eyes of Jesus condemnation no compassion compassion John explains that Jesus loved his disciples he loved them and he loved them to the end he loved them in a way that was unconditional he loved them in a way that was not related to their effectiveness or to their usefulness or to their success quotient I can't remember a reason so many books all the time but I just read the title page of a book maybe it was a book by Kay yeah it was by Ken Venturi the golf commentator and the guy who won the US Open years ago I came victory I think the title page says it to my mother and father who loved me unconditionally who loved me unconditionally and here you have Jesus looking into the eyes of this Peter fellow the one that he said to at the very beginning of Peter I want you to follow me I'll make you a Fisher of men the one who's made all these great statements you're the Christ the Son of the Living God the one who's been told get behind me because and because you're like Satan you don't have in mind the things of God but the things of man your heads in the wrong place the one who has to swipe with a sword and Jesus has to put the ear back on all of this is wrapped up and he looks at and they looked at him and Peter saw his eyes and Peter wept I'm not sure he would have wept if Jesus had said that's exactly what I thought of you Peter a worthless character from the beginning despite all of your protestations despite all of your great affirmations about yourself begone with you you and Judas as well know why because the good work that he begins he brings to completion Judas went out from them because he was not of them Peter is restored to him despite the tragedy of these circumstances because remember you'll find this and look again that Luke Luke records that Jesus says to the disciples he actually addresses Simon speaks to the group and then applies it to Simon peculiarly Simon Simon Satan has desired to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for you and after you have been restored or after you have turned again then strengthen the Brethren Peter knew him Peter knows you Peter knows me Jesus I mean he knows us he knows our stumblings he knows our great boasts he knows our dreadful collapses the mystery of this little drama is the mystery that is there between what is happening upstairs and what is happening downstairs as I said in passing and one of the services last Sunday there's a kind of Downton Abbey thing that is going on here that upstairs inside in the high priest's home this drama is unfolding as they are interrogating Jesus but downstairs what is happening is also a drama and it is unfolding and the answer to all of the predicament in Peters denial downstairs is to be found in that which is actually taking place upstairs because Jesus loves his own he dies in their place because Peter actually in this instance loves himself more and his security and his safety he denies his master but I said that there was one little indication in mark of his future and it's actually just in two words in verse 7 of Mark chapter 16 we think in terms of now recovery or restoration you might like the restoration better but I'm using it in that sense so now we're at the resurrection day and the angel has rolled back the stone this young man is sitting there and he says to the woman don't be alarmed verse 6 you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified he has risen he's not here you didn't see where they laid him but go tell his disciples here we go and Peter and Peter special mention wouldn't go tell his disciples have covered it of course it would Peter was one of his disciples aren't you one of them he's one of them you're definitely one of them I don't know what you mean I'm not one of them I don't know the man God be my witness I don't know the man go and tell his disciples he's alive and Peter how wonderful because the story of Peter doesn't end with the collapse in the courtyard it doesn't even end with the breakfast on the beach but the breakfast on the beach settles the demise that has taken place in the far light of the cold evening in Jerusalem you'll need to read this for yourselves how does it all end up in John's Gospel Peter says I'm going fishing the friends say you know what we might as well go fishing as well commentators spend vast amounts of ink trying to decide what he meant by that frankly I don't know but he went fishing I know that for sure because the main things are the plain things I'm going fishing so he was going fishing secondly they didn't catch any fish that's easy to understand as well and thirdly a stranger on the shore said hey how's the fishing they said nothing he said go the other side they might as well we never caught anything now they can't even contain what it is they're bringing in and somebody says you know what you know who just said put it down on the other side that was the master that was the Lord he's risen to life again Peters out the boat like a shot and we find him up on the breakfast table at breakfast with Jesus and what does Jesus say to him he says Peter I got three questions for you question 1 do you love me yes question 2 do you really love me yes question 3 do you really really really love me yes that's all I needed to know Peter now I want you to go out and live for me do you see how masterful this is that his threefold denial is met by the opportunity for a three-fold affirmation that here on the beach by the power of God the canvas of his life and his life is not defined by the encounter in the courtyard but it is marked by the encounter in the courtyard the reason that it will be significant for him to call to mind is not so that he can bury himself in in all of the agony of recalling what I'm dreadfully made of things but in order that he might be able to say when I was lost you came and rescued me reached down into the pit and lifted me I'm the denier I deserve to face the punishment I deserve to bear those nails but you bore them for me you bore my punishment in order that I might enjoy your forgiveness Peter when you have been restored I want you to strengthen the Brethren time goes by he's now writing to the scattered Christians of his day this is your homework you go to first Peter chapter 5 and as he gives advice there to the elders in their care of the church as he gives counsel to young men to submit to those who are older he then runs down a line where he gives these excitations that are vital for the community to which he writes and he says to them clothe yourselves with humility towards one another you think that sentence cost him when you come up against an exhortation to humility don't you remember not the times that you were so phenomenally humble by the times you were so horribly proud call yourselves with humility towards one another because I remember I didn't I said that I was the only one out of the group I was that I was the best I was the top of the tree I was the I was the man clothed yourselves with humility humble yourselves I didn't humble myself cast your anxiety on him he cares for you I was overwhelmed by the pressure cooker of life in that context be watchful I wasn't watchful I was vulnerable I didn't focus on what he said and then he gives this great word of comfort and assurance he says after you have suffered a little while the God of all grace will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you now you know the rest of the story despite his classic collapse Peter was restored restored to usefulness eventually he would die legend says that he died a died by crucifixion legend said that he asked to be crucified upside down so that he would then bear in his own body that reality of the fact that in that courtyard he got the whole thing upside down but the glorious news is that the God who restored Peter is the guard who restores all repentant sinners Jesus who knew Peter knew his vulnerability is the Jesus who knows you and knows me and God is the God who restores even the years that the locusts have eaten father thank you that the Bible speaks with clarity help us Lord to be equally clear in our understanding in our believing and in our application forgive us Lord when we are guilty of that self-centered audacity when we crumble at the questions of our friends but thank you that you are the God of restoration thank you that you or all the punishment that our sins deserve in order that we might know a forgiveness that is not ours however to assume thank you that the message of the gospel is not do this do all these things try and be better and you will be accepted but it's the story of what Jesus Christ has accomplished so that we might rest in him and find all of our righteousness in him all of our joy all of our peace look upon us in your mercy we pray for Jesus sake this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

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Length: 40min 39sec (2439 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020