Denying Jesus
Luke 22:54-62
Peter was “the Rock”. He was sure that he would never forsake Jesus. That when ever the going got tough he would be there. In fact he even told Jesus that he was ready to go with Him into prison and into death. How often do we do the same thing? We stand and say that we are willing to follow Jesus wherever He may lead us. But whenever the going gets to rough or dangerous or even for some inconvenient we quickly turn aside and hide our allegiance to Him. We begin to back pedal. When this happens we are doing the same thing that Peter did when he denied the Lord three times before the cock crowed.
There was a pastor of a very well-known Bible church, one that taught the Word of God. Today he is a denier of the deity of Jesus Christ. He is a professor at USC, one who does everything he can to turn young people away from Christianity. He also falls into the category of an apostate, somebody who knows the truth, has all the information about the truth, and willfully turns his back on the truth for his own pursuit.
Lu 22:54 And they seized him, and led him [away], and brought him into the high priest`s house. But Peter followed afar off.
Lu 22:55 And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the court, and had sat down together, Peter sat in the midst of them.
Lu 22:56 And a certain maid seeing him as he sat in the light [of the fire], and looking stedfastly upon him, said, This man also was with him.
Lu 22:57 But he denied, saying, Woman, I know him not.
Lu 22:58 And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou also art [one] of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not.
Lu 22:59 And after the space of about one hour another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this man also was with him; for he is a Galilaean.
Lu 22:60 But Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.
Lu 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the cock crow this day thou shalt deny me thrice.
Lu 22:62 And he went out, and wept bitterly.
I. Peter Denials of Christ
Peter’s first denial of Jesus came about outside of the Head Priest’s house. Peter had followed Christ as He was lead to the Head Priest’s house and he was standing where he could see his Lord. The very same Lord that he had proclaimed so much loyalty too. The very same Lord that he had proclaimed that he was willing to go to prison with even unto death with. Now his first opportunity to stand up for his Lord was here when the maid said that Peter was one of the followers of Jesus. Did Jesus boldly proclaim Christ? No, what he did was to react in his humanity. His survival mode kicked in and he denied even knowing Christ. In fact he even seemed angry in this denial. I don’t know this man don’t say that about me. Many of us do the same thing on Monday when we walk into the office we check Christ at the door and we are the same as everyone else in the building. We are saying the same thing that Peter did when he denied knowing Christ at the fire. We act out of self preservation because our Christianity might make it hard for us to function in a secular world. Here was Peter who could see our Lord with his own eyes, who had eaten with Him, and sat at His feet for instruction and yet he still failed. Why? Two more times Peter is given an opportunity to proclaim the Lord and two more times he denies Christ. What was the cause of this, surely he who personally knew Jesus and had seen Him with his own eyes would have the strength to stand for Christ. But twice more he denies him. He does this because he is standing in his own strength and was not standing in the strength of Christ.
II. Peter reliance on himself and not on Christ
Even though Peter had the advantage of actually having seen Jesus and been taught by Jesus Peter still did not understand what the kingdom was truly about. He had not realized that at this time the kingdom would be a spiritual kingdom. He was waiting for Christ to establish His earthly kingdom. Because of this he was depending on his own strength and not that of Jesus to sustain him when he was faced with trials and tribulations. So when the heat became to great he folded and went with the world. Instead of depending on Christ and saying yes I am a follower of The Lord Peter instead denied even knowing Him.
What about us? Every one of us at some point depended on our own strength to get through a situation. How often did those decision fail when we did something in our own power? Peter, who Christ had renamed the Rock, had to learn the lesson that even a rock has to have a deep roots in the foundation of the world to keep from being carried away by erosion. So must we have deep roots in our spiritual foundation before we cannot be moved. Jesus is our foundation and we need to have our roots sunk deep into Him. To many today are going through life depending on their own strength and they are failing to carry out God’s services. God knows that we cannot succeed in our own strength and that is why He tells us to lean or depend on Him.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as weak but when it comes to Satan and sin even the strongest among us will fail when we only depend on our own strength. Samson who was the world’s strongest man leaned on himself instead of God and he failed. He had his strength taken away from him to make him realize that he needed God to succeed. Once he came to that realization God gave him His strength back and Samson leaning on God was able to exact his revenge. If we only depend on ourselves also we will fail just as Samson failed. Any and all work done for Christ has to be done in His name and in His strength. Anything else is worthless to Christ. Peter, the Rock, failed when He only relied on himself what makes think we can do any better.
A native of interior China wanted to become a Christian but couldn’t understand how Christianity was superior to Confucianism and Buddhism. One morning he came to the missionary in a happy mood saying, "I dreamed last night, and now I understand. I dreamed I had fallen into a deep pit where I lay helpless and despairing. Confucius came and said, ’Let me give you advice, my friend; if you get out of your trouble, never get in again.’ Buddha came and said, ’If you can climb up to where I can reach you, I will help you.’ Then Christ came. He climbed down into the pit and carried me out." It takes the Savior of man to do that. Only a Savior would stoop so low as to save a sinful soul like yours and mine.
Satan wants us to rely only on ourselves in fact he encourages us to rely on our selves. Because he knows that we will falter without the strength of Jesus. So anytime he can make us forget about Jesus and fills us with pride so that we don’t think we need Jesus he is joyful because he has prevented a saint from fulfilling his role in the body of Christ.
III. Peters Repentance
I have often wondered what Peter saw in Jesus’ eyes when our Lord looked at him when the cock crowed. What ever Peter saw it rocked him to the very bottom of his soul. It revealed his failure to depend on Jesus, to trust Jesus for all his needs. That is what it really means to rely on our selves, instead of Jesus. We are saying that we don’t trust Jesus to meet our needs or take care of us. That we don’t believe that Jesus can or will keep His the promises that He made in the Bible. Peter had not grasped that which Jesus was teaching yet. That the kingdom for now would be a spiritual kingdom. Many today are just as confused. They don’t understand that when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior that Jesus made a commitment to provide for our needs, to be our Lord and to be our Savior. And in return we made a commitment that we would be servants. That we would lean on Him, allow Him to lead us, and to trust that He will provide for our needs and that nothing happens in this world without Him allowing it.
See if Peter had understood that night that Jesus is Lord of all and nothing happen outside His plan then Peter would have had the courage to stand and say yes I know Him. He is my Lord and Savior. That would have reached the Jewish world. But instead he had let fear erode away his faith and like the rock that he was named for his faith was washed away with the flood of fear that he felt. Is that what Peter saw in the Lord’s eyes the hurt because of the denial?
I don’t believe that was what Peter saw. I believe what Peter saw in Jesus’ eyes was the Love, Mercy, and forgiveness for the denial and the strength that was his to call upon. Now Peter began to understand.
It was almost one o’clock in the morning when the phone range in the Winters’ home. Dr. Leon Winter, the highly acclaimed Chicago surgeon, was awakened with a start.
Tonight it was a young boy, they said, tragically mangled in a late night accident. Couldn’t someone else handle it? Not this time. This time his hands were possibly the only ones in the city, or maybe in the whole regio n, which were skilled enough to save.
The quickest route happened to be through a rather rough area, but with time being a critical factor, it was worth the risk. He almost made it through the worst of the neighborhood. Almost. Then, at a stop light, his door was jerked open by a man in a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. "I’ve got to have your car!" the man screamed, pulling him from his seat. Winters tried explaining the gravity of his situation, but the man was not listening.
The doctor wandered for over 45 minutes looking for a phone. When the taxi finally got him to the hospital, over an hour had passed. He burst through the doors and into the nurses’ station, but the nurse on duty only shook her head. Too late. The boy had just died about 30 minutes earlier. "His dad got here just before he died," the nurse told him. He is in the chapel. Go see him, would you? He is awfully confused. He could not understand why you never came."
Without explaining, Dr. Winters walked hurriedly down the hall and quietly entered the chapel. At the front knelt the huddled form of a weeping father, in a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. Tragically, he had pushed from his life the only one who could save.
How many today are pushing from their lives the only One who can save?
Did Jesus reject Peter because Peter had failed in this trial? Did He reject all the other disciples because they had deserted Him? No, He did not reject them and He did not reject Peter. I believe when Peter looked into the eyes of Jesus that night He saw the Love and Mercy of our Lord. I believe it was at that moment Peter began to repent of his sin of denial and he went out and wept bitterly. He was not crying for Jesus he was crying because he had failed to witness for Christ. If had truly understood he would have stood for Christ no matter the consequences. Today you have to many people preachers included who are giving into the world because they don’t fully understand what Jesus is saying for them to do. They are listening to false teaching about being politically correct and compromising to get bigger congregations or not to make waves in their community. Well from my study of the Bible Jesus and the early church we not concerned with being politically correct and they absolutely refused to compromise with the world and they made waves in their community because of their belief and devotion to Christ. They went to the lion’s den and the arena because of their refusal to compromise. And now today we are being told to compromise that the Bible was not written for modern times and we must update it. No the Bible is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow it does not need to be updated it is us who need to update ourselves with the word of God. Peter realized at that moment when their eyes made contact that he had been depending on his own strength and that he needed to depend on the strength of Jesus Christ.
Many missionaries today have to learn this lesson. They live in remote areas of remote countries. Sometimes outside contact is a major issue and the have to learn to trust the Lord for all that they need. Others are faced with life and death choices where a choice for Christ could mean physical death. If they were working in only their strength they would soon falter. But for those who depend on Christ and his strength they will increase and continue on.
A perfect example of this is Hudson Taylor a missionary to China in the 1800s. While on a voyage to China the ship that he was traveling on became becalmed in the China Sea. This was a time of danger because pirates roamed the seas. Over the horizon a mast appeared, it was a pirate ship that was being rowed. The captain who had been making fun of Hudson Taylor because of his belief in Christ called Hudson Taylor to him and said “Preacher man if you really believe what you preach then you better pray for some wind from you God because the pirates are coming.” Hudson replied “Captain I will gladly pray but not until you put every bit of sail you have up because I believe that God answers my prayers.” The Captain said “Your crazy if I did that my men would think I had lost it and throw me overboard.” The pirates kept getting closer and closer and the men watched. Finally the Captain ordered the men to raise all sail. The men did look strangely at the Captain but followed orders. When the last sail was put up Hudson knelt and prayed a simple short prayer asking God to deliver a wind to sail them out of danger. When Hudson said Amen there was a puff of air and then a breeze setting the ship in motion leaving the surprised pirates behind. That day Hudson lead many aboard that ship to Christ including the Captain. What about you do you believe that God answers prayers do you depend on Him. If not we are about to sing a Hymn of invitation and if God has been talking to you come the alter is open.
