In today’s sermon, Pastor Babij examines Peter’s denial of Jesus and teaches three main lessons:
- Even the faith of a strong disciple, such as Peter, can fail in dire circumstances when that person depends upon his own strength and not on the Lord’s power.
- Jesus will compassionately and lovingly restore the truly repentant, as He did with Peter.
- Believers must always be ready to stand firm with Christ in situations where they might be tempted to actively or passively deny Christ.
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okay this morning let’s again once again take our bibles and turn to the gospel of mark chapter 14 and we’re going to be looking this morning at verse 66.
mark chapter 14 verse 66-72 as you find your place let’s buy together this morning in a word of prayer lord this morning as we put our eyes upon your word i pray lord that we would learn today that those who are disciples of jesus christ need to grow in their understanding of your plan and your person and i pray lord in doing that you know you must break us down before you build us up you must drive out all the wrong thinking and put in biblical thinking so we have a correct view of who you are what you’ve done and lord not only will you do it with us but you’ve done it right from the beginning with your own apostles so i pray lord that we would learn well the lesson this morning that we see here and i pray lord that we would give ourselves over to you to be transformed as you see fit that anything we need in our life we place there and i pray lord we respond to it in a way that you can develop us into the disciples of jesus christ that are effective and influential in this world that we live i pray that today your name would be exalted because of it i ask this this morning in christ’s name amen amen chapter 14 of mark as we come to the end of this chapter before we get into uh chapter 15 which we’ll be talking about the other trials that jesus had before pilate and then finally the crucifixion and then the resurrection and today we have already witnessed the deep agony of jesus in the garden of gethsemane where he prayed not what i will but what you will we have also witnessed this hell-bent crowd comprised of soldiers on loan from the romans the temple police and also a bunch of underlings and rabble rousers who just wanted to make trouble and arrest jesus and bring him before the courts in addition we saw jesus actually arrested out of in an out of the way place under the cover of darkness while most of the multitude in jerusalem that were there for the passover were asleep all these things were going on and jesus then was led away under guard so that he could be tried by the jewish leadership we saw that last week and remember that his uh there’s three stages in the trial of jesus before the jews mark picks it up at the second stage and that second stage is there would be a hasty informal trial before caiaphas and the sanhedrin caiaphas being the high priest of that day and jesus of course would be condemned mocked and beaten so we saw last time the criminal trial of jesus they were having a hard time finding witnesses to collapse collaborate with each other so they can get some credible uh substance to bring against jesus they got they didn’t get any actually at all uh in verse number 40 of mark chapter excuse me verse number 60 of mark chapter 14 caiaphas the high priest uh took kind of took a scare tactic uh and in verse 60 we see that the high priest stood up came forward questioned jesus saying do you not answer what is it is it these men are testifying against you in other words these two witnesses had some incriminating evidence uh incriminating testimony against him and what was the testimony in verse number 57 and 58 that of course they heard that jesus would destroy the temple made with hands and in three days we’ll build another made without hands and of course the destruction of a worship place was a criminal offense and of course but they still didn’t have the witnesses that were collaborating their uh testimony and so they had to really he had to use what he had and so he says to jesus do you have an answer to the charges of these witnesses and in verse number 61 of mark chapter 14 jesus kept silent and did not answer and of course he did that to fulfill the scripture from isaiah 53 and then of course caiaphas was determined to get to the real focus of the matter and that was the focus was this that jesus had claimed to be the promised son of god and so did those disciples understand him as being that so the high priest violates protocol and asks a direct incriminating question and that question was in verse 61 are you the christ the son of the blessed one that is that was the question that of course did they think they were going to get an answer like they got from jesus probably not but the divine clock was running out and it was time for a reliable witness to step forward that reliable witness will be jesus himself and he breaks the silence in verse number 62 and that means that the messianic secret is over jesus bears witness to his own identity openly directly clearly and the whole religious ruling body of israel heard jesus answer he gives them way more than they could have ever asked for and notice in verse jesus said i am and you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven so as soon as jesus made that pronouncement the situation turned from bad to worse it went uh to really a shameful display of dishonor among the people that were there and so jesus is now openly condemned of course unofficially but openly the high priest received jesus statement with of course blind eyes deaf ears and a dead heart which is of course evident by his theatrical response in verse 63 he tears his clothes uh the high priest says with what further need do we have of witnesses you have heard the blasphemy and so of course he’s saying we don’t need anybody more witnesses he’s kind of condemned himself caiaphas has the gotcha moment i got you for blasphemy and of course the penalty for a blasphemy was death of course sanhedrin had no authority to put people to death so they had to further get into the roman government so the roman government can make that call and so as far as caiaphas was concerned the case is settled he bypasses legal procedure and he moves to influence the whole council to condemn jesus look at verse 64. and you have heard the blasphemy how does it seem it seemed to you and they all condemned him to be deserving of death so no waiting for a second session like they were supposed to no waiting for another day to pass just in case maybe their judgment was wrong they could have changed it no tabulating the votes within the 71 members of the sanhedrin to find out if he was really could be acquitted or or was he guilty none of that so as soon as the whole council uh condemned jesus as deserving of death a riot breaks out in a very real sense and all the restraints of the human wicked human heart broke out against jesus and of course this is just the kind of atmosphere that i mentioned last time that henchmen and underlings and rabble rousers want and of course in verse 65 what takes place jesus is mocked and beaten they insult jesus by spitting on him they threw a cloth over his head and started slapping him in the face yelling prophesy tell us which one hit you and then of course even the temple police joined in with greater force and began to savagely strike jesus with their fist notice in verse 65 it says some began to spit at him and to blindfold him and beat him with their fist and say to him prophesy and the officers received him with slaps in the face so that continued actually the language there tells us it continued for a while and they beat jesus and they humiliated him and of course again why did they do that part of that was not only their wicked heart but it was god’s plan from isaiah that he would be uh beaten and of course his beard would be plucked out from isaiah and his uh he would face humiliation and spitting and that is what’s going on here so what this high religious council did not get by jesus pronouncement was who jesus really was and that’s the whole purpose of the gospel of mark is to show us who jesus really is now we know of course because we understand now that he was saying to them today i stand before you but there is coming a day when you will stand before me in judgment someday in the future the tables will be turned on you and i powerfully will demonstrate the truth of this claim today when i come in infinite power then then you will ex really experience me in a way that you never have before i will not be the man who has come in lowliness and humiliation but i will come in divine power and glory and you will one day be conscious of whom you are about to put to death so it’s always a matter of belief or unbelief either one gets god’s wrath because of their unbelief or one gets god’s mercy either you will experience the compassion and mercy of a gentle savior or you will experience the wrath of a savior a god who is a ferocious judge that’s the reality of the situation not only for them there but for us today and we’ll continue on in that way until the lord comes back so saying that when is it in the passion week well it’s still very early friday morning it’s about three to five a.m in the morning right before the sun comes up after the sanhedrin uh had condemned jesus and and as they waited for dawn when they could really convene and convene officially and endorse this decision the members of the sanhedrin continue to mock and beat and abuse the lord until the sun rose and so meanwhile while all this is going on with our lord jesus peter i said we’re going to leave peter alone last week right well we’re not leaving him alone this week we’re going to fully bring him to light because peter is so much like many of us we are just like him so peter is in the courtyard acting in a manner contrary to all that he had learned following jesus for these three years he was considered to be pretty much the chief of the disciples he was the one who usually spoke out before anyone else he usually the one that answered the question before anyone else did he was always the one up in front and both you and i would agree if after reading scripture that peter was bold he was a strong leader among the disciples in fact there’s been many examples of the strength so far look at verse number uh where we remember we see peter’s strength can be seen in his the recklessness of his faith where it says but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear now we know that that was peter who did that and if he was acting uh pretty much in a fleshly way still not understanding that there’s uh he needed spiritual strength not physical strength to do the work of god so we see a strength there though and also we can see a strength in his the audaciousness of his faith like in verse number 54 and the word audacious is a word that means to be bold to be fearless to be daring it’s hard sometimes to be around people who are there it seems like they’d like to walk the edge right you know like you know right after the edge it’s the cliff right daring he was that kind of person he was a daring person and we see like in verse 54 where it says chapter 14 peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest and was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire so all the disciples had fled but peter and john had managed to follow at a distance it says in scripture because they were afraid they didn’t want to be recognized peter actually managed to get into the courthouse yard of the high priest now you say how did he do that well it seems that john the apostle john his family had known the high priest and the workers that worked under the high priest and the door keepers that kept the door to the courtyards of the high priest and so it actually records in john this you don’t need to turn there but it tells us in john 18 16 so the other disciple that the other disciple would be the apostle john excuse me who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought peter in so before you can get into the courtyard of the high priest they had a gate and they had a doorkeeper at the gate of course letting only the people that were allowed to come in in so peter in his audaciousness got in there and um now nevertheless we have to give peterson credit that he he actually apart from all the other disciples actually went ahead and did this this was not this was like a undercover mission he wanted to try to go in there being undetected and get out of there just to find out what’s going on because he’s kind of in confusion now he he doesn’t real he’s not recognizing yet the death resurrect the death of jesus christ is going to be the means uh how god would save people he was thinking the messiah was going to come in take over turn over the roman government and the kingdom of god would come and that would be it that’s not the case so he’s a bit confused now saying all that the fact remains that even the bravest and the more aggressive of the disciples may crumble under pressure we’re going to see that in our passage see peter’s problem was that he had been misreading god’s method of salvation by peter misreading of god’s plan to save he actually was shunning the cross not even considering it even though he heard it several times from the lord and even in fact a couple times uh the one of the times that jesus did say to peter that listen i am going to be suffering many things i am going to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and i’m going to be killed and on the third day i’m going to rise again he still wasn’t connecting the dots and peter rebuked jesus in mark 14 29 and and rebuked him uh saying saying that no that’s not going to happen to you uh we’re going to get through this kind of like you know that kind of council and of course jesus immediately said to them get behind me satan for you you are not setting your mind on god’s interest but man isn’t that our problem that we set our mind on our interests on the world’s on man’s interest and we don’t set our mind on god’s interest that’s what his problem was and that’s what our problem is all right so jesus warns peter of course about his sure defection and denial and peter’s uh peter’s failure will be actually a greater failure than the rest of the disciples and so jesus says to peter peter here’s the real deal i’m going to tell you exactly what you’re going to do in uh mark 14 30. it says uh and jesus said to him i said to you uh that this very night before the rooster crows twice you yourself will deny me three times and of course he went up in this uproar he says everybody’s gonna deny you but i’m not gonna deny you i’m gonna be the one that’s gonna be there not denying you he still didn’t listen to jesus i don’t know how clear you can get but he wasn’t getting it and so these three denials were not just a momentary slip of weakness it actually was evidence of extreme spiritual failure the opposite of this is when i am weak god is strong and that is a lesson we must all learn that it is in our weakness that god displays his glory and his strength when we think we’re strong when we think we can handle it when we think we can grow without the provisions that god’s given us spiritually to grow we’re already in trouble and that’s where peter’s at right now and you know what all of us at one point in our christian life are right there you know we feel strong we feel healthy you know we’re going to the gym physically all right we’re not necessarily going to the gym spiritually and um and we think we can conquer the world young people can think they can conquer the world they have all the answers and so they try to live their christian life just on that well what happens is that they’re going to fall on their face it is naive presumption to think that one can follow christ by a simple assertion of the will it cannot happen this presumption of course invites a rude awakening because mere confidence in the flesh and at least fleshly powers is a receipt for spiritual failure but we have to learn that lesson we have already learned in mark much of the faith of true believers may give way we may give way under certain pressure a snare a temptation see the fear of men as i mentioned last week is a snare we are afraid of situations and people and sometimes we avoid them and we try to manipulate them under with our owner mental abilities and with our own strength and with people we know and when we do that we end up getting into trouble we also don’t know to what extent our faith may give way we don’t know what life trials may come that we may be weakened to this particular point so again the scripture alerts us be spiritually alert be on guard all the time because these things we all must learn still the fact remains again that the bravest and the more aggressive of disciples may crumble under certain pressures peter didn’t think it could be him but it was and we’re going to see that by way of analogy diamond cutters know that diamonds are one of the strongest materials on earth and can bear extreme weight when put under direct pressure however diamond cutters also know that there are fault lines that can be seen under magnification in diamonds and when that fault line is identified and then struck very precisely with even a small blow it can chip off a piece of the diamond with very little effort and i think in a similar way the slightest inquiries could draw out of us the weaknesses that we have and even the horrible realities that can be found in our own sinful hearts and only god knows how to do that so more often more often than we really care to admit the lord must break us down before he can build us up and make us spiritually strong and not strong in ourselves but strong in the lord see the lord knows the fault lines in our life and he’ll supply the needed pressure in order to chip away at our weaknesses and our sinfulness and expose them even to ourselves because we have to see them he doesn’t do it to destroy us never to do that but to make us strong spiritually to make us soldiers in this battle that were is called the christian life and that our strength will come from the lord himself and to learn this lesson is a lesson that is well learned let’s look at peter this morning and let’s learn from peter’s experience how the chief diamond cutter jesus christ makes his disciples well there’s three observations i want to make about peter the first one is i want to make it in this way and you know it’s very unique in scripture that it was peter and not the other disciples because peter was the strongest one of the group he was the most audacious one of the group and daring one of the group but i say this first that the strongest disciples faith may falter it may falter look at it it says in mark chapter 14 verse number 66 and 67 it says 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 says you also were with jesus the nazarene all right now see peter’s faith kind of falters under the slightest interrogation of this young maid who’s a gatekeeper no official standing with her no real power that she has but she did notice him and it says of course in scripture that he was with the nazarene so the doorkeeper looked at peter noticed that he was one of jesus disciples and at this point we don’t know what caught her attention possibly peter’s look maybe his clothing maybe his accent or maybe she recalled him from a past event that she saw him at we don’t know at this particular point in any case what he didn’t want happened she brought unwanted attention on peter from the crowd peter was trying to be in there inconspicuous he didn’t want anybody to see him so this is the first observation is that his faith now begins to falter by just a little bit of pressure just a little bit well let’s see what happens next i would say the second observation would be that the strongest disciples faith also may collapse when he did not expect it to and so in this section we see that there are three downward steps that is taken by peter and the first downward step is of course peter first panic all right and his panic led him in the flesh just try to solve that problem what do you do when you get panicked right you try to gather all your thoughts together to say how can i get out of this situation how can i get removed from this event that i’m in and so notice in verse 67 of mark chapter 14 it says and seeing peter warming himself she looked at him and says you also were with jesus the nazarene that’s verse 67 so peter in a fearful dread now lied his way out of this public explosion exposure and of course flatly denied notice in verse 68 but he denied it saying i neither know nor understand what you’re talking about so in his panic in the weakness of his flesh how do i get out of this i lie right you ever get out something by lying matter of fact i would guarantee every one of us hopefully we don’t make that a practice but all of us have done all right so again very much like peter here and peter really was thinking i need to get out of here my cover’s blown and so this is what he does he lies to get out but this is the first denial he’s denying his lord pretty much uh it’s right out there so so what he did is that he worked his way into a passageway that led out of the courtyard of the high priest thinking that i need to get away from the glow of this fire so they can’t see my face and just kind of hide in the darkness of the corner and that’s what he did and of course right at that point of trying to escape the glowing fire and that warm fire it says in verse number 68 the second part of the verse some say of course and he went out onto the porch and the rooster crowed now who told him about the rooster growing the lord saying that you’re going to deny me three times well this is the first time and we some say that the rooster crowed around 3 a.m uh in the morning and that’s the first time that happened and just think just think of it this strong outspoken disciple is put on the run by a mere maid by a servant girl and peter of course cowers on the fear created by the situation and the enemy’s talons captures peter’s tongue and he’s unable to confess his lord but instead his flesh is energized to verbally deny jesus uh in this particular situation now maybe peter thought at that point he was at least in the darkness now and safe but notice what happens next peter’s panic turns to desperation you know what happens when panic turns to desperation does your way of thinking get more clear and more stable of what to do as far as the right thing to do no what happens is that once you get desperate your thoughts are all over the place you’re just scrambling to do anything you can to get out of the situation well just like peter what does he do in verse number 69 notice the servant girl saw him and began once more to say to the bystanders this one this is one of them all right so again this same maiden it’s the same girl who’s really curious now kicks peter out again even though he’s trying to hide away as being a follower of this condemned man called jesus and what does peter do in verse 70 but again he denied it see the verb here is in a what they call an imperfect tense meaning that peter proceeded to deny in other words it indicates that his denying went on for some length of time how do you convince somebody to get out of a desperate and panic situation you do a lot of talking right you try to talk your way out of it and that’s exactly what he’s doing here he’s talking his way out of it in other words peter went off in an extended denial of jesus christ why does he do that why does he do that well when you search the other gospels you’ll find out there’s three reasons why you really went off at this point first reason was he was identified by one of the relatives of malekith oh malchus you know who malcolm’s was right he was the guy that you cut the ear off of right now you notice that if malcus is a relative who didn’t give the whole story about what jesus did then who are they going to be after they’re going to be after peter in fact the gospel of john picks this up and it says this about him one of the slaves of the high priest being a relative of the one whose ear peter cut off said did i not see you in the garden with him so in other words the slave girl got the crowd focusing their attention on who peter all right so all the attentions on peter which peter does not want and that’s what he has and of course a second thing that takes place is that peter is identified by his accent now the gospel of matthew says to us a little later the bystanders came up and said to peter surely you too are one of them for even the way you talk gives you away in other words the greek word is lalia is the way he talks the way he uses his tongue you know language and accents give people away all the time don’t they matter of fact if you talk to me if i talk to you just for a few seconds i can tell where you’re from i can even tell where you’re from in new jersey when you hear someone say y’all over and over again you probably are say they’re somewhere from down south right because they say that all the time or if someone says to you i parked a car and have it yet you probably would say well there’s somewhere from new england right or someone who keeps saying hey hey hey you probably say well there’s somewhere from canada or maybe somebody will say good day mate you know they’re probably from australia now so language is we can we can pretty much know in our own country and uh where people are from just by the way they talk and so as far as peter’s concerned they got them nailed where is he from he’s not from jerusalem where is he from he’s from galilee well who else is from galilee jesus is from galilee so see all these things are piling up on him and he just is getting nailed to the wall that there’s no way that he can really get out of this and of course we know also um in verse number 70 of mark chapter 14 all right peter is definitely exposed to the crowd and all the attention of the bystanders are on him notice what it says and aft right in the middle of the passage and after a little while but the bystanders were again saying to peter surely you are one of them for you are a galilean too all right so they connected him by language by presence just by malachis or malcus is relative that this guy is with him so in other words if he’s with him and he believes the same thing jesus believes and he’s really genuinely one of his followers peter’s really in trouble because he’s thinking oh no the same thing that’s gonna that’s taking place with jesus is gonna happen to me i need to get out of here now how do you convince somebody when you’re in a situation like that to get out of there well i think peter’s desperation is elevated to a an aggressively let’s let’s place his foot this way he had to dis disconnect himself from jesus christ how do you do that how do you convince the crowd to back off how do you do that well you did it by cursing by swearing that’s how he did it yes this peter who made several great confessions about jesus christ like recorded in matthew you are the christ the son of the living god all right in john chapter 6 we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of god where shall we go you have the words of eternal life that’s all from peter and now he’s put in the corner and now his panic that turned to desperation is now at the frantic stage that means you know when you’re looking at a meter it’s in the red stage and at the red stage you do anything you can to get out of the situation and notice what it says in verse 71 it says and he began to curse and swear i do not know this man you are talking about the word curse is actually a word that we’re pretty familiar with an anthem i thought it means an anthem you know actually used in passages like galatians where it says but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you the gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be a curse there’s that word same word anathema he’s a curse because he doesn’t preach the true gospel and then like in first corinthians 16 if anyone does not love the lord he is to be an antibiotic a curse so this word here means in other words for peter to be convincing he had to call down all manner of evil upon himself with high and holy oaths before god as a witness that he indeed did not know this man jesus it’s like saying may god do to me if i am telling a lie let the curses fall on me so he does and says anything to save himself he does so at that particular point i think uh i think peter is at um this third downward step that he just took away from christ completely outlandishly denying that he even knew jesus christ because of the fear of man because he was just trusting in his own fleshly ability his mental mental ability that he uh even his boldness to get out of there he just says the only way i’m going to convince these people is just to outright curse and swear and get out and they’ll have to think okay if this guy is cursing squaring cursing upon himself then he probably doesn’t know right that’s what he’s coming up with so what happens to that well all that was designed for peter by god himself for what reason to break him down to show him that he cannot trust those things when he finally leads the apostles after jesus rises from the grave he goes back to heaven and now begins to build the church remember i called the message this morning uh the crumbling stone and the reason why i call them that is because peter’s name means little stone and upon this rock the bedrock jesus christ he will build the church god will give to peter the keys of the kingdom meaning he’s going to unlock the kingdom of god to people by preaching the gospel that’s what he’s going to do so unless he learns this lesson he cannot do that right he must learn the lesson you know what until we learn this lesson we cannot live the christian life that we ought to live unless we learn these particular lessons it’s not done in your own power it’s not done by what you know by how you’re educated by people you know by how much money you have it’s not done by any of that it’s done by god’s power in your life by you saying no to the flesh and yes to the spirit of god and the spirit of god fills you to do the work of god and then you depend on god’s strength do everything you have to do in this world in this life see that’s the only way the christian life because when you live it there you will maintain your peace that god says i will give you and no one can take away and you will maintain the joy deep in your heart which is the strength of god which god has given and no one can take away but you can give it away you can lay it aside right we need to live our life there because you know what god doesn’t promise us a rose garden for our christian life he says there’s going to be trials there’s going to be temptations people are going to hate you because of me they are going to come against you because of me because you bear my image you think satan is happy that you have been snatched from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light you think is happy about that do you think he’s going to leave you alone he’s not going to tempt you you think that that’s it you understand from scripture that you need to be strong but your strength needs to come from the lord so what happens at this point what does god do with us when we get to that point well i’ll say this the last point would be this that the strongest disciples failure of faith may be restored right we all can be restored as real disciples when we do fall on our face when we do falter when we do collapse under the pressures of life we can be restored and how are we restored we’re all restored the same exact way and let’s look at some of the the steps in being restored all right verse number 72 it says in mark 14 it says immediately when all this happened the rooster crowed a second time and notice and peter remembered what he remember how jesus had made the remark to him before a rooster crows twice you will deny me three times so in scripture what did he remember he remembered the lord’s word finally finally peter is remembering what jesus actually said and it’s benefiting him because he now puts those two things together and now he’s beginning to listen to the words of the lord and the words of the lord now are reminding him peter i already told you these things are going to happen you didn’t believe it you thought you were strong enough in yourself and that you could handle it all but you can’t you need me so as jesus was led from the house of the high priest to the dungeon he glanced over at peter in the courtyard jesus heard peter’s third denial and the lord looked upon peter who had vigorously protested his superior loyal loyalty to jesus and gave that away and peter fled into the darkness or into the dawn with a broken heart see that’s the first way that we are restored we remember the word of god we remember what god said about his children about about what the lord has has done in behalf of his children and what he will do in prayer in behalf of his children but the second thing that happens we found in verse 20 72 is this he began to weep all right now here we know that weeping in other pa in other gospels it says that he wept bitterly and audibly of course me this means that he repented there was a genuine sign of repentance by his weeping so and of course repentance is always the proof of a real disciple a real disciple recognizes in peter’s case the grave city committed by denying his lord and when he when he said he thought he couldn’t but he did and now the genuine sorrow that came with a recognition of sin and when you really know you sinned against the lord there’s going to be a recognition of that sin and a sorrow that comes with it i am grieved that i acted that way when i knew better not to but i learned my lesson that i cannot overcome things uh in my life without christ and i think three things really helped bring about peter’s repentance and i believe the lord many times designs these things for us maybe he uses people but i think one of them is the rooster pro right this kind of like uh actually it’s it’s really the uh it could be the sound of a bugle some people have interpreted the rooster crawling as the sound of a bugle but i don’t think that’s interpretation i think it’s jerusalem right and so the rooster crow what is it does it jogs his mind to remember all right and of course then secondly would be jesus word is now remembered he’s remember exactly what the lord says and then i think a third thing would be the savior’s look at the precise moment the lord looked at peter after his third denial and did he see the look of condemnation no he saw on the bloody spit upon black and blue face of jesus christ a look of compassion mercy not god not giving peter what he actually deserved no and and matter of fact every time we give ourself over as a living sacrifice to god like romans 12 1 why what motivates us to do that the mercy of god that god didn’t give you and i something we all deserve we deserve hell but he didn’t give it to us why because of his compassion because of his mercy towards us so peter remembered he repented and then of course in luke chapter 22 it tells us something else about what happened it said that he returned to follow jesus with now uh understanding of his dependence on christ and less on himself this is what it says in in luke chapter 22 it says simon simon jesus speaking behold satan has demanded permission to sift you like we but i have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and you when once you have turned again meaning you turn back to the lord this is what he says go strengthen your brothers now you’re strong enough to minister now you’re strong enough to go do what i want you to do because you’re not going in your own strength you’re going into strength that comes from on high the strength that comes from the spirit that the strength that comes from knowing the word of god knowing the will of god so that’s the strength that god wants us to minister in but you know as we look back and examine peter’s responses there is actually an identifiable pattern in which the downward steps of a backsliding heart can be actually recognized if we go back a bit what did peter do back in the beginning there he began to the first thing is he started questioning god’s plan and in interpreting it in a way that that doesn’t have to be that way we can do it another way a second thing he began to do is he began to boast about his understanding of things where where when he says that even if i uh i have to die with you i will not deny you he was boasting about his ability not to die christ not to deny christ and so he was boasting in his own strength and then also in mark 14 37 to 42 he was sleeping when he should have been alert and awake he was spiritually drowsy and then what happened after that we saw today he began to flesh things out that thinking that the spiritual battle was fought with worldly weapons like swords and clubs like words and my ability to get out of situations if i’m trapped and then what happens in verse 54 he begins to follow jesus from a distance i don’t want to get too close and then of course that leads to denying jesus so these steps all can be found in our heart that’s getting cold a heart that that’s moving away from the lord you know we start following jesus from a distance you know maybe that means not coming to church as often as you once did not being involved in serving the lord as you once did maybe it could be maybe you’re not even in your bible like you once did and and so you began to like have a distance a coldness that comes in right and then what happens in that case you you revert back to all the old fleshy things oh is did god really mean that that i shouldn’t go out and you know get plastic and drunk you gotta really mean that he wants me to have a good time so you mean that i’m just gonna just one time you know that’s all it takes and we begin to just boast that hey listen i’ve been doing all right i’m pretty strong my life’s going pretty good i’m paying my bills all right all those things and you begin to rationalize and think just in a worldly way and then what happens is that you let down your garden you kind of fall asleep spiritually and then you just keep doing things that you know in the flesh there’s no heart for god there you’re just going through the motions and you begin to even follow farther away from the lord and away from his people and church and away from the word of god and things get distanced and what you start doing is you start just you know die you don’t have to deny like peter denied you can deny by just not saying that’s right people at work don’t even know you’re a believer people in your little group don’t even know you know christ why because you never say anything that’s is that is that a witness or is that a denial of jesus no whoa if i mention jesus i might get fired i’m not talking about wasting your boss’s time i’m talking about letting them know by your words and your actions that you are a believer and not afraid to say it around the scuttlebutt of the water cooler i know christ and this is what christ has done for me sometimes it only takes a few minutes right and then we just don’t say anything to our neighbors to our our family we have uh events and we just very nicely deny christ all of us are going to fail the question becomes will you turn to jesus will you confess your sin and call it what it is saying and will you let him restore it because he’s right there to do it and i know that in the general walk of the christian life every one of us are going to be in this place maybe once maybe twice and hopefully not more than that because if you’re there today maybe today to confess your sin of possibly just not being living your christian life openly even denying christ in that way or maybe following from afar having a whole heart or maybe you’re here today and you don’t you know the truth of scripture you know the way of the gospel but you and your pride just have never asked christ to say to you today may be the day you need to do that and lay those things aside and cast yourself upon the lord because if you are a believer he will have nothing but compassion on you he will receive you to himself and he will strengthen you why he’s all he’s breaking us down to build this up up for what reason so we can strengthen our brothers and sisters in christ that’s what the lord is doing and believe me if peter had to learn that lesson don’t think you’re getting out of it you and i have to learn but when we learn it let’s learn it well and once we learn here let’s not go back the way of backsliding but let’s constantly have a heart and a warm heart for the lord so that in our weakness he may be strong and then the lord can work through you and i to minister to others on a regular basis and all god’s people said or lord thank you again for the just the reality of the word of god lord if this was not here in scripture how would we know that such a strong audacious apostle like peter had to learn these things before he could be effectively before he can do what you wanted him to do and so lord when you teach us these same things at maybe in a different context lord let us learn well and lord let us see it as really as sin lord and let us repent of it and put those things aside and learn to cast our care upon you where we know you care for us that you may guard our heart and mind from worry and allow the peace of god to reign and the joy of the lord of the earth please do that amongst us do what you need to do in our hearts today and bring us to a place where we are not lukewarm but on fire for you in our hearts and i pray this in christ amen