Peter's Denial: the Danger of Self-Confidence (Mark 14:66-72)

men one of the things that we would never want to do is be in a position where we would deny god and when you think about denying him maybe being tortured and denying him you and demanding that you deny jesus it is one of those things that we think we would rather die than to deny christ it's something we would never want to do but peter did it three times he denied him on the night that jesus was arrested when jesus was arrested three times and peter was i think undeniably the leader of the disciples every time you have a list of the disciples peter is the first one mentioned and judas is the last one mentioned and that pretty much gives you your ranking peter is the leader and judas wasn't really a disciple at all and judas betrayed him also peter was maybe the right word is audacious he was willing to call jesus out he was willing to say no to jesus when jesus told him to do something you're not going to wash my feet and when jesus said i'm going to jerusalem to die no you're not going to go and he rebuked him to which jesus rebuked him because his mindset was on the things of satan rather than on the things of god he did not want jesus to go and suffer and give his life and so he was an audacious person he would stand up and he would speak his mind when jesus said throw your nets out for a catch remember right out in the early part of the ministry of jesus peter said i've been fishing all night long nevertheless at your word i will throw it over why would you tell him you've been fishing all night long and have caught nothing unless you were trying to tell him i'm a fisherman and you're a preacher i'll fish and you preach all right but i'll throw it over but of course jesus showed him that he is in charge of everything and it took peter a long time for him to be able to learn that now before we get to peter denying i want to give a little bit of um maybe stick up for peter a little bit because the denial seems to be like such a cowardly thing it's a girl at the gate that asks him you're not one of his disciples as well are you oh no i'm not he's warming himself at a fire where the people that are around it are people who want to see what's going to happen to jesus we could call them enemies he's warming himself at the enemy's fire and he denies him two more times and then the rooster crows the bible tells us that he gets eye contact with jesus and goes outside of that courtyard and weeps bitterly he is brokenhearted that he has done it but it wasn't really an act of cowardice because peter had said to him and we're going to read this in a moment peter had said to him even if i die i won't deny you he was ready and willing to die for christ i think that many of us if we were pushed to the edge we would say yes i'm willing to die for him maybe even the majority of us here tonight would say i would die for him i believe that i would i would say confidently i would die for christ i'll live for him then i'll die for him and i think the majority of you would say that and peter meant it when he said it because when judas kissed him in the garden and they came to arrest jesus peter pulled out a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest malchus now we don't know exactly what happened but again peter's a fisherman he's not a soldier he probably wasn't going for the ear he probably didn't try to i'm going to cut your ear off he's probably going for the head and got the ear and jesus said put away your sword those who live by the sword are going to die by the sword so he gets rebuked he gets rebuked by jesus because jesus peter now is going to defend him that was a bold act that was that was a brave act it wasn't the act of a coward it was a brave act and so peter puts away a sword and jesus picks the ear up of malcus and puts it back on his head and heals him or folds it back up if it wasn't cut completely off folds it back up and prays for him and he's healed and now they can't arrest peter up to that point i think they were going to arrest peter you'd say you take your sword after roman soldiers but what were they going to do now try them for cutting off malcus's ear when malcolm sazir was still on his head i think they were just stunned but i think peter was stunned as well peter was confused and so when they take jesus off and he goes to the courtyard of the high priest where john who knows the family of the high priest goes in and he motions peter to come in and he brings peter in as well all of the other disciples had scattered peter didn't have to follow but he followed him anyway and had he not followed him into the courtyard he would have never have denied him it was the strength of peter that ended up being a problem that caused his denial the bible says that in our weaknesses god is made strong peter had a he said your spirit is willing jesus had told him but your flesh is weak so he had this this weakness in his flesh but he had such a boldness and a desire to do things for god that it was only a brave person who could have been in his position to end up denying him and i think that maybe god wants to show us that we can't rely upon our strengths that our strengths lead to weaknesses and sometimes we are as peter as we're going to see we are overconfident in our strengths peter's main problem was overconfidence so let's take a look at four mistakes that peter made because you don't go from being in the upper room with jesus and and everything being good to all the sudden going out and and denying him now jesus has just finished handing the bread they're in the upper room they're at the last supper jesus has given them communion he has washed their feet he now told them one of them was going to betray him they all asked each other or they all asked jesus is it me is it me judah says teacher rabbi is it me he says it's as you say he gives judas the bread and judas leaves and now he turns around to the disciples that are probably still a little stunned that jesus said one of you will betray me and now he says in verse 27 of mark 14 then jesus said to them all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night for it is written i will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered more bad news it's all good while jesus is washing the disciples feet telling them that blessed are they if they know it but then one of you will betray me and now you're all going to be scattered and they were scattered i think even john was scattered originally but john regathered with peter made his way to that courtyard john was not only at the courtyard where jesus would have his first trial but he was also at the cross when jesus was being crucified even though john scattered he ended up standing in front of the cross and it's kind of amazing too when you think about it that john was the youngest of the disciples there was no one younger than john if you're here today and you're young you might think that god can't really use you but how wrong you are god fills everybody with the spirit and god calls people who are young and god calls people who are old no matter who you are god has a purpose a plan for your life john was the youngest of the disciples and he ends up in front of the cross isn't that amazing and then he says but after i have been raised i will go before you to galilee he's now giving them this information and remember that jesus sometimes talked in parables and i think that they were confused about the things jesus was saying after i'm raised he had already told them i am going to he told them several times by the way he predicted his own death i am going to be arrested handed over to the gentiles i'm going to be crucified i'm going to die and on the third day i'm going to rise again and now he tells them i'm going to meet you in galilee that was the plan all along what did jesus say to mary magdalene go tell the disciples and peter that i want to meet them in galilee now peter speaks up i said peter is audacious here's peter he said it's all of them i tell you the truth all of you are going to be scattered the bible says i'll strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter peter said to him verse 29 even if all are made to stumble yet i will not be he point i wonder if he pointed at the other disciples even if every one of these guys matthew and you know uh phillip and thomas even if these guys all here deny you i will never deny you i am i'm better than them i won't deny you jesus said to him assuredly i say to you today even this night before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times but he spoke vehemently if i have to die for you i will not deny you he doesn't receive what jesus said he doesn't believe it how many things has jesus said that have been wrong how many times has jesus spoke while peter's around that he hasn't been right and now he thinks that jesus is going to be wrong now i'll suggest this i i think that our approach of the word of god sometimes is much like peter we read what god's word says and we still have a little bit i'm going to pick and choose i'm going to decide what i want to follow and what i think god's really saying to me and what he's not saying to me rather than having a complete submission to the word of god i think that we talked about it last in our last service i i think that judas had some decisions that could have made things much better for him i think that judas could have repented even after betraying christ if peter can be forgiven for denying judas could have been forgiven for betraying and that i had peter listened to what jesus was saying and believed it then he would have been more careful if he would have said what do you mean before the rooster crows i'm going to deny you three times i don't think that's possible that i could deny you but instead he was just vehement and this is the first mistake that he makes it's overconfidence it's thinking that what jesus says doesn't apply to him he has way too much confidence in himself and that ends up being his weakness as i said the denial of peter is the is the denial of a brave person who put himself in a position that he should have never have been in had he been a coward he would have fled the other way and he would have never denied christ but because of his bravery he found himself there and because of his confidence that what jesus was saying wasn't true so when jesus when the bible tells us things about our own weakness all of we like sheep are prone to go astray i always say this when i quote that verse i wish the bible didn't say that i wish it said all we like you know who's loyal you know all of we like dogs are loyal i don't know what else is loyal besides a dog it's a bad example i know but i'm i was just spitballing making it up as i was going uh i wish we were loyal i wish we weren't prone to go astray but we are prone to go astray and we've got to realize that and when the bible gives us warnings we need to take those warnings seriously some people say the warnings are in the bible not to really warn us i don't know what the warnings in the bible would be for if they weren't to warn us and so the bible gives us warnings warnings about money the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and many have been shipwrecked in their faith for the love of money and you might say to jesus not me you might say i don't have any money how can i be shipwrecked by money because it doesn't same money is going to shipwreck you it says the love of money has shipped wrecked many the bible says the love of this world the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is like adultery towards god and we go well that's not me i would never put this world above god i would never put pretty things above god all of those warnings are there for a reason and we should not be over confident with them when we're reading the bible when we're having our quiet times when we're going through it and we read a warning in the scriptures we should take it seriously that's what peter didn't do he just blew it off and that was the first mistake had he taken it seriously maybe he wouldn't have had this great failure in his life listen to what jesus said to him in luke 22 verses 31-34 this is the same event it's just a different account of it and the lord said simon simon indeed satan has asked for you that he may sift you like wheat but i have prayed for you well let's just stop there and consider that for a moment simon simon he didn't call him peter he'd given him a new name peter now he uses his old name that's significant he not only uses his old name once but he uses his old name twice simon simon you are now peter on on on this rock i'm going to build my church not peter but on the the petra the pet the bedrock but now he says simon simon satan's been asking for you first of all that's scary even as a leader i would like to fly under the radar of satan the villain of the world right the serpent of all the dragon of revelation i would like to fly under the radar where satan never goes let me get it robert i don't want that satan's been asking for you but i've prayed for you peter must have thought good thing you've prayed for me and he says that your faith should not fail this was such a horrible thing for peter to go through that it could have destroyed his faith he could have walked away from christ altogether that's how bad this is for him i prayed for you that your faith will not fail and when you return to me peter must what what what when i returned to you but you prayed for me he lets him know you are going to fail he's telling him and when you return to me strengthen your brethren he lets him know even in the time that he's going to be sifted like wheat that he is going to have a leadership role in the end when you return to me strengthened my brethren but he said to him lord i am ready to go with you both to prison and death and i'm quite sure he was then he said to him i tell you peter the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me as i said same event different you know giving us more information luke gives us more information that this is is satan desiring to sift him now jesus could have easily have said no to satan right like when satan approached god and god brought up job when you read the book of job it says the sons of god were numbered before god and satan was among them and god said to satan where have you been i've been going around the earth i've been observing men have you considered my servant job there's no one upright and like him in all of the world well he only serves you because you protect him but let's take the protection away and he'll curse you to your face well okay you could take away his stuff but you can't touch him he still kept something there i think why would god allow that to happen especially all the things that job went through why would god allow peter to suffer at the hands of satan being sifted by him because god had a plan in it all god uses boy this is this is a hard one today for people to really take god uses our pain our suffering and our failures to do a work in our lives if you don't have any failures if you don't ever come up against it and struggle then you are most likely a very arrogant person i remember when i first came to christ i remember hearing somebody had walked away and i remember saying i can't believe anybody would walk away from jesus within another three years i walked away for a year when when you fail god does something inside of you it's not that we should desire to fail it's not like you're gonna go okay then let me fail i'm ready i'm gonna go on fail then big time i'm gonna learn a lot of things from it no we're not wanting to fail it's the desire not to fail but when we are sifted and when we fail god's got a plan even in that god allows us to suffer god allow because he's got a purpose in it because god's got a plan in it and if you wonder what the plan for suffering and pain is you just look at the cross god had a plan in the suffering and the pain of jesus to do this redemptive work for the entire world and god's got a plan when you go through difficulties hardships and suffering god's even got a plan to use your failures for his good not that we plan failures not that we want to fail we don't want to we don't want to plant them but god's even able to use our failures for the good what is what a thing the second mistake that he made is that he failed to pray jesus took the disciples across the kidron valley and into the garden of gethsemane and he got peter james and john and took them into the inner part of the garden of gethsemane the word gethsemane means olive press or the place of the olive press and it is where jesus will be pressed it is there that i believe that he fulfills isaiah 53 he bears all of our sorrow and all of our grief so that so that when we grieve we are not alone he said to the disciples before he went and prayed i am so sorrowful i think i'm going to die they have taken so much bad news this night one of you is going to betray me one of you is going peter you're going to deny me i'm leaving but take heart if i go away i'm going to come again and receive all of these things but i'm going to leave you the holy spirit i'm going but i'm going to leave you the holy spirit and now i'm so sorrowful i think i could die as i believe the weight of all of the sorrow and grief of all mankind was laid upon him and jesus goes in a stone throw away from them he prays father if it's possible take this cup from me nevertheless not my will but your will be done by the way that is a good prayer for us to pray if possible take this cup from me nevertheless not my will but your will i love what shadowrack meshach and abednego said when they were thrown into the furnace they said our god will deliver us but even if he doesn't we will serve him our god will deliver us but even if he doesn't we will serve him and it's never wrong to pray your will be done i've heard people teach that before by the way if you teach whatever your will is god that's a lack of faith it's the opposite it's embracing faith for him to work in your life peter prayed three times excuse me paul played three times that the thorn in the flesh would be taken away and the answer was no it was given to him to buffet him for humility god gave it he knew why why he had received the thorn in the flesh whatever that was so he goes in and he comes back to them and they're asleep peter's sleeping he wakes them up pray peter your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak he had the heart the desire to do it but his flesh was weakened because his flesh was weak he didn't do the things that he needed to do to strengthen his spirit and so he needed to pray he was told by jesus you need to pray pray with me couldn't you watch with me couldn't you pray with me even for an hour and he goes back in again and he prays the same thing again and he comes out and peter's asleep so are james and john by the way and he goes back in again and he prays the same he rebukes them again he goes back and he prays the same thing a third time he comes back out again and he says it's enough and when you harmonize the gospels it looks like jesus sits down and watches over them while they sleep he lets them sleep while he waits for judas to show up with the arresting party first mistake was he was overconfident maybe that led to the second mistake that he failed to pray maybe when we're so confident that the warnings in scripture aren't to me maybe we're not praying enough then maybe if we weren't so overconfident we'd be praying more but we are overconfident and so we don't pray which leads to his third mistake and that is that he followed jesus at a distance both john they were scattered immediately as jesus was led away but john and and and peter got together and they started following after christ and i realize here that i'm using a bit of an analogy because i don't think that they should have gone right up to jesus and walked right along with him we're going with him we're standing here with him he they've been told that they were going to scatter but i'm using this as an analogy that when we follow jesus at a distance we make ourselves vulnerable when we aren't close to him when we don't remain close to him when we allow something just to kind of separate us from him when we become like the church of ephesus that leaves its first love the church of ephesus did all kinds of good things for him they tested those who were false prophets they taught the word of god they stayed faithful to the gospel but they left their first love and he said if you don't return repent and repeat the things you did at first then i'll take away your candlestand from your midst we need to stay close to christ keep things right with him the more at a distance we follow him the more we are the more susceptible we are to falling into some severe sin that will crush us trust me peter wishes he would have never denied christ and probably could have gone back and done things differently the fourth mistake is that he was where he shouldn't have been now the courtyard's fine but it's swarming himself at the enemy's fire that's a question mark there's a time to be with the enemies of christ there's a time to stand for him there's a time to represent him we are the light of the world we are the salt of the earth we have been given the keys to the kingdom we have been given gifts by the holy spirit we have been given the holy spirit so that we would be witness of witnesses for him in jerusalem judea samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth that we would fill to stand for him in the midst of dark places but he's warming himself with the enemy's fire someone says you're one of them he says no i'm not but he said it in a galilean accent so somebody else said oh wait a minute he shouldn't have been there look what mark 14 look at go to verse 66 now as peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came and when she saw peter warming himself she looked at him and said you are also with jesus of nazareth but he denied it saying i neither know nor understand what you are saying and he went out on the porch and the rooster crowed now one of the other gospels tells us that he looked across and caught eye contact with jesus and then he went outside and wept bitterly and the and the servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by this is one of them but he denied it again and a little later those who stood by said to peter again surely you are one of them you are a galilean and your speech shows it and then he began to curse and swear i don't know the man whom you speak his curse here are oaths they're not cursing they're not cursed words he's saying i swear to god i am not one of his disciples he's taking oaths by god he's looking religious while he's denying jesus do you know what that reminds me of it reminds me of jacob when jacob was stealing his his brother's blessing his dad had said his dad's getting ready to die his dad esau says go out and and kill something for me wild and make me that food you know bring in the live game to me and and uh rebecca heard it who am i talking about here actually so so i saw isaac right rebecca right i got it i'm saying the right thing so rebecca heard it and she gets jacob and she puts goat's hair on him and his brother's robe because he smells like a field and she makes him the a lamb just like he wants it and he goes in and he says i've got your food here tries to sound like you saw i've grow your food here and he said how did you get it so quickly my son god was with me he said god blessed me he's deceiving his father and he uses spiritual things to say he's deceiving him that's kind of the way jacob's life goes by the way peter does the same thing he swears and he takes oaths and the second time the rooster crowed then peter called the mind what jesus said to him before the rooster crows twice you will deny me three times and when he thought about it he wept he followed he denied he remembered and he wept and this shows us the depths of what peter's heart really was for god he had a desire to really serve him and follow him but god was going to use this in his life and god wasn't going to let him go as i said this is a severe sin denying jesus i don't know him a couple of things in closing number one there are several ways in which we deny jesus and we can evaluate our lives that we would not do that there are subtle ways in which we can present ourselves as if we're not one of his disciples number two we can look for opportunities to let people know that christ is in us that we are christians and again i don't know that we want to knock the door down with that but people around us should know a few years ago i had a couple of people come up to me after a service and they said we have worked in the same place for years i don't remember how many years they said but it was a long time we've worked together every day for years and we just found out we both go to the same church we both go to church here and and afterwards i thought i don't know that that's a good thing that you could work with someone and i even believe they said that you know we just found out we were christians you could work with someone for a long time and not know they're christians there ought to be something that comes up there to be some way in which you are able to let people know that you are with christ because there are subtle ways in which we can deny him as well number three be careful that you are not so overconfident that you think that the scriptures don't apply to you that when we're studying the bible together and we're reading all of the warnings in the scripture and listen there are a lot of warnings in the scripture that you would not think it's not me but instead that we would be seeking god asking him for help asking him to strengthen us because a lot of us maybe even all of us in a way are like peter i know when you ask people which disciple do you identify with the most the two you get often most often the number one is peter we identify with peter most often maybe it's because he's the one who talked to most i don't know the other one is thomas but we too may have a spirit that is willing but a flesh that is weak may god strengthen us that we would be able to stand solidly for him and not deny our savior in any way stand with me would you and let's pray together father we want to thank you for this time that we're able to spend studying your word we want to thank you that you give us so much detail about peter and his denial and what led up to it and as we see these these smaller mistakes that he makes that leads to the huge mistake it's the small things it's the little foxes that we let in that eventually end up destroying the vine and lord we pray that we would be wise and we would learn from this denial of peter we thank you for this in the name of jesus we pray amen i'd like you to keep your eyes closed please your heads bowed for just a couple of minutes i'd also like to ask that no one would leave early we're almost done we'll dismiss you here momentarily but i want to give you an opportunity if you're here tonight or you're watching on our live online service or you're listening live on reach radio to give your life to christ maybe you've never received him you don't become a christian just because you begin attending church someone said going to church doesn't make you a a christian any more than going to mcdonald's makes you a hamburger or going into a garage makes you a car you have to deliberately say lord i want you in my life i receive you jesus said it this way you must be born again and when you were born again everything is transformed you become an entirely new person old things pass away the bible says and everything becomes new god's also got a plan for you he's got a purpose for your life and god fills you with the holy spirit and gives you gifts to be able to do the work that god calls you to do and he joins you together with a body of christ that we can work together for the things that god has planned for us to do i'd love to see all of those things take place in your life if today you say i want to come to him and you may be here and you you you made a commitment to christ a while back but you walked away and it's just as important for you to say to the lord i want you in my life again forgive me for walking away you are a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter and you might think god doesn't want to have anything to do with you because of that but the bible says that god runs to prodigals he ran to the prodigal son he put a ring on his finger and a robe on his back and he leaves the 99 and he goes after the one because he loves you and he wants you to come home it's time for you to come home to him and begin to live the life filled by the spirit empowered by god that god has called you to live so if you're here tonight you want to give your life to christ or you want to return to him then i'm going to ask you to do something simple right where you are just raise your hand lift your hand up now lift it up high so i can see it i want to make my way around the room and acknowledge your hands god bless you right there in the middle that's great god bless you up in the balcony that's awesome the bible says today is the day of salvation today if you hear god's voice don't harden your heart if god is speaking to you don't harden your heart against it just raise your hand lift your hand up now again lift it up high so i can see it out in the pavilion all right also if you're watching online you can respond as well you can raise your hand you can say lord i want you in my life you can invite him in because you are with us in spirit you're here and he's there with you or if you're listening now on reach radio maybe you're driving down the road right now and you can't believe that there's an opportunity for you to surrender your life to christ by the way if you're hearing this this is live god's speaking to you now he's drawing you to himself now and if you want to give your life to christ then just respond right where you are just tell them lord i want to give my life to you our lord i want to return to you you can put your hands down and i would like everyone including those who raise their hand to repeat this prayer after me dear heavenly father i confess that i have and i know my sin has separated me from you but i also understand that i can be forgiven by the death of jesus on the cross so i invite you into my life and i turn from my sin that i can live for you in the name of jesus amen welcome to the family of god amen and welcome to eternal life with jesus christ what an awesome thing and if you return to the lord welcome back we have a new believer's table that's off to our right here we've got people that are there that would love to pray with you go and tell them i gave my life to christ today or i return to christ today and they'll pray with you give you a bible a new believer's packet if you are watching online or you're listening on reach radio you can send us an email at save calvarytucson.com or if you're here and you've given your life to christ we'd love to hear your story we'd love to hear what god's done in your life and how come you came back and why what god was doing in your life to bring you back and we have people who will respond to it so just send an email to save calvarytucsun.com let us know that you gave your life to christ you need to confess that jesus is your lord tell somebody before you leave here tonight write it out in an email to us jesus is my lord i gave my life to him and i'm now going to live for him we want to help you out in the best way that we can the bible says ask and you will receive and if you ask anything in the name of jesus it will be done for you so before we go tonight we want to pray would you reach out your hand towards me i want to pray for you father i want to pray for all of those that are gathered together in this room first of all i pray lord that you would touch and heal and we do as jesus did we pray for your will but lord we know that you've said that you would answer our prayers and it is our desire to walk closer with you it is our desire to be more on fire for you it is our desire to live for you with everything we have and so we invite you into our lives lord i also pray for those that may be struggling here tonight maybe struggling in their homes and their marriages and with other relationships i pray lord that we would be at peace with people around us i pray for those that may be depressed or stressed or panicky touch and heal bring peace tonight i pray and fill us with your spirit that we would be used by you as the body of christ in the midst of a world that needs to see jesus the hope of glory in us and we thank you for these things in the name of jesus we pray amen now may the lord bless you and keep you may he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you may god lift up his countenance on you and give you peace may god fill you with his holy spirit may you be filled to overflow and may god use you along with all of us as the body of christ to make a difference in this world because that's why we're here that's why god has called us you have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son god's doing that work in you renewing that inner man day by day stay close to jesus keep things right with him keep short accounts with him this weekend we'll be back in our jesus appointment series we've got the um the apologetics conference friday saturday and sunday and then on sunday morning and saturday night we're going to be looking at jesus in the garden of gethsemane lessons we learn from gethsemane as we see jesus um there uh pouring himself out to to god all right so god bless you guys hand things back over to megan and johnny they're going to lead you in the final song and dismiss you we'll see you guys later on

Channel: Calvary Tucson with Robert Furrow

Views: 735

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus Christ, Forgiveness, Repentance, Restoration, Peter denies Christ, Peter denies jesus, The roster crows, Robert Furrow, religion, spirituality, Bible, salvation, Jesus, Lord, God, Christ, gospel, truth, word, church, holy, prophecy, study, prophet, preaching

Id: JKCXeDo87SY

Length: 38min 34sec (2314 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020