The following message is brought to you by Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We exist to bring glory to God by knowing Christ and making Him known. If you would like to visit our church, we hold multiple services on Sunday mornings, starting at 9am. We are located between Motukere Wharf and Edai Town. Pickups are available 7009-1000. If you have your Bibles this morning, we'll be in Luke 22 and John 18. So if you'll get Luke 22 and John 18, we'll be in Luke 22 first, and we'll be in John 18 second. So if you grab John 18, have it on the side, maybe put a piece of paper in there, and then we'll get to that eventually, but we'll spend the most of our time in Luke 22. So Luke 22 and John 18, we're in the Garden of Gethsemane. And the Savior has been praying. His sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. He's prayed and he's had his disciples there. He told his disciples, you pray, that you be not entered into temptation. And he himself went and prayed separately. His prayer was, God the Father, let this cup pass from me. He knew what was in the cup. He saw it. It was as if he could see the wrath of God upon the sin of the world and the cup. All of the sin of all mankind for all time must be paid for. In the past, it was blood of sacrifices, bulls and goats and turtle doves. pigeons, and that blood was only used to cover the sin. And yet the blood of the Lamb of God would take away the sin forever. And God would not look upon man with sin upon him anymore. Instead, God would look upon man as if he saw Jesus Christ, his Son. And God made Him, Jesus, to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So God took all of Jesus' righteousness and placed it upon us and put all of my sin upon Jesus. And that happened on the cross. And Jesus looked into the cup, the wrath of God upon the sin of man, and God was going to pour that wrath upon His Son. And Jesus looked at that cup and He said, Father, if it be able, let this cup pass from Me but not my will, but thine be done. And instead he took that cup to himself. He stood from his prayer as it were. His knees did not shake. His hand did not quiver. He came to his disciples and found them asleep. Asked them, can you not pray with me for one hour? Awake, pray with me. That's where we find ourselves in verse 47. He just asked them, rise and pray that you be not entered into temptation. Verse 47, while he yet spake, behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? Here's a crowd coming to Jesus. All throughout the Gospels, we've seen multitudes following Jesus. Jesus doing miracles and multitudes following behind Him to watch as He does these things and listen to Him preach the Gospel. They've watched Him feed 5,000 at one time and 4,000 at another time, and they have loved Him and followed Him. But this time is the first that we see a multitude coming to Jesus, not with greatness, but instead they were coming after him to tear him down. Judas has gone and gotten the chief priest. He'd made a deal with them. The chief priest hated Jesus. He has single-handedly destroyed their income. They were very, very rich. Every year they raised lambs, and they would sell the lambs at the Passover day. And the people would have to come and buy the lambs. But in order to buy the lambs, they had to use temple money, and the temple money belonged to the chief priests. And so they would exchange their money, and the chief priests would make money off of the exchange, and then they would make money off the sale of the lambs. This was the one time in the year where the chief priests made lots of money. And Jesus had gone into the temple earlier this week, turned over the money changers' tables, and he said, you people are making a den of thieves out of my father's house. This is supposed to be a house of prayer, and instead you've made it a den of thieves. And he made a whip, and he ran out all the animals they could no longer sell in the temple. And the chief priests found this to be terrible. Not only did he undermine their belief system, he took away their financial system. And they were angry. They've paid Judas. And now they know where to get him. And they've paid the soldiers, and they're going to provide the strength by which to get him. And now they come. Notice in verse 47, a multitude came, and he that was called Judas was one of the twelve, should never have happened. One of his own gave him up. and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him, and Jesus is going to call him out. In verse 48, Jesus asks him, Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Are you going to use the lips that I gave you and the breath that I gave you? I sustain your life, and you're going to betray me with it? Verse 49, when they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. Within this story, the whole story is about Jesus. This whole story is about Jesus. Today we're going to look at a subplot within the story. That subplot is Peter. We're going to see Peter act in the midst of the story. I want to remind you that Jesus is always the hero of every story. But in the middle of this story, we're going to see Peter. Peter was the leader among the disciples. When you see the disciples listed, you always see Peter there. He's the one that's the first one to action. He's the first one to talk. When the disciples needed to say something, he was the one to say it. When Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration, he took three men with him, Peter, James, and John. The three of them went up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Of all the things that Jesus did on the earth, Peter got to see the best one, where he got to hear God Almighty say, this is my beloved son, hear him. Peter got to see that. He got to see Jesus changed into light. He watched it happen with his own eyes. He was the one that spoke up for the other two. The other two were sitting there quivering, and Peter's, I don't know what to do right now, but I think, Jesus, maybe we should build some houses. That'd be perfect, right? This is Peter, always the leader, natural leader. And right now, in this moment, there is a crowd, a multitude of people, chief priests, elders, scribes, soldiers being led by Judas to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus has retired every night this week. This week, starting on Monday coming through, Jesus has been in the temple during the day, and then in the afternoon, come to the Mount of Olives, speak with the disciples, and then at night, sleep in Bethany. And the next morning, come into the town, into the city. This has happened every day, and every evening, he leaves the city and goes to the Mount of Olives. Judas knows it. Judas goes and gets this crowd of people, and as they're coming, can you have it in your mind, it's late at night. 11, 12, it's late at night. And they're there in the dark. There's no street lights. All the houses, they put their lamps off. City is in the distance, 15 minutes away, 20 minutes by foot. In the distance, the lights are off. There's lights that are now appearing, and those lights are the torches that these soldiers are carrying. It's a very scary sight. Jesus wakes up the disciples, the 11 of them, they're sleeping on the side and they're rubbing their eyes and they don't know what's going on. Just fell asleep. Sorry, Jesus, I know we were supposed to be praying, but man, this one's been tough and they don't know what's about to happen. They have no idea, they're not paying attention. Peter remembers that twice already in this night that Jesus has said, you will deny me. He said it twice. And one time he said, before the cock crows, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. Peter sees this coming, he realizes what's happening. See the words there in verse 49. When they which were about him saw what would follow, they put it together in that moment. They opened their eyes, they realized, here soldiers, that's Judas, he's kissing Jesus. Hang on a second. Judas, now we know what you were up to. You left when we were in the upper room and now we know where you went. It's very tense. Peter, I think his mind goes back to the promise he's made to Jesus earlier in the night. I will not leave you. I'll follow you. I'll go to prison, and if I have to, I'll go to death. I'm with you, Jesus. It's a promise he's made. Then his mind begins to float through, what other things have we talked about tonight? Jesus just said tonight, if you don't have a sword, sell your coat and get a sword. His mind goes to the sword. He quickly thinks, in our group, we already discussed this, there are only two swords in our group. And I don't know if Peter had that sword or if he had to take it from somebody else. But in that moment, Peter says, I'm a leader, I'm following Jesus, and if this means I go to death, I'm gonna do it. And he ran and grabbed that sword, perhaps from someone else, and he begins to swing it. Have you ever been in a tense situation? Two big groups of people, and they face off, and things are very tense. And all it takes is one person to swing a sword, and it's on. And Peter just swung the sword. It's the first one. I don't know if you maybe have read this passage before and you thought that this might be some kind of a sterile thing. Let me read the words that are used. One of them, verse 50, that's Peter, one of them smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. John tells us who is who. Peter's the disciple. Malchus is the servant of the high priest. John gives their names. It says, Peter grabbed a sword and cut off his ear. Please don't let those simple words make you think that this is just a sterile moment. Where Peter grabbed his sword and he said, hang on a second, let me get your ear there, buddy. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is a very tense situation. We have 30, 50, 100. It's a multitude of people on one side and 12 on the other. Peter thinks, we're going to go down tonight. I'm going to go down swinging. And he grabs his sword and he swings. And I don't know if you've ever thought about how did he cut an ear off I promise you, he did not go, ah, got it. It did not happen like that. Anybody seen a knife fight? You would understand. In a knife fight, things don't happen clean. Very dirty. When the knife gets swung, it almost never hits where on another person where was expected because the person that's receiving the knife swing doesn't stand there and just take it. He will move. He'll block. seen many wounds from knife fights. And it's never the way it was planned. And I think Peter grabbed his knife, and he swings for Malchus. Perhaps Malchus is the first one in the front, and he just swings for him. And I think he swings across to try to take Malchus' head off, and I think Malchus does one of these numbers to duck down, and instead he gets blown on the side of his head. Now you think about this. A tense moment, Peter just swung, and an ear came off. I don't know if that ear is laying on the ground or if that ear is dangling from his head, but one thing's for sure, Malchus is holding his head right now and blood is going everywhere. Now, in that moment, the other side is going to explode. They're coming. You cut one of us, the rest of us are coming. And Jesus puts a stop to it right in the middle of this. This is an amazing moment that Jesus does. He grabbed Malchus and it says that he touched his ear and he became whole. His ear was made whole. Jesus diffused the situation right in the one act. How do you attack somebody that just fixed your friend's ear? It's over. The fight's done. And it's because Jesus is going to fulfill, and we're gonna see the verse in just a minute, Jesus is gonna fulfill a prophecy that said, I did not lose any of mine. You see, that night is about Jesus fulfilling the will of the Father, going to the cross. It has nothing to do with Peter and Andrew, James and Thomas and Matthew dying. No, no, no, the disciples have no part of that. And so Jesus will protect them, and he will give himself. This is not a mistake that he goes to the cross. He laid his life down. No man will take it from him. He lays it down and he will take it up again. Peter, the natural leader, hold your place here in Luke 22. We'll come back to that. I want you to see John 18 and see John's record of this. It's the same story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this story in their account. John records the same account, but he also adds in more detail. By the way, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this story in the longest of each one of their chapters. It's the longest chapter in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke. All three of them go past 70 verses in their chapters. Very rare that we see long chapters like that in the Gospels. And here we are in John chapter 18. There's a little story that happens right before Peter's swinging. And I think that this little story causes Peter to have a little bit more strength in him. It might help us to see a little bit more about what's going on in Peter's mind. Look at John chapter 18, verse number 4. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? So you have Judas has already led the crowd. Judas has kissed Jesus. And Jesus turns to the crowd and says, Who are you coming for? Who do you seek? Now watch their response. Then answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. Now get this picture. Here's all of these guys, the chief priests, elders, scribes, soldiers, and Judas together. They're on one side. And Jesus asked, who are you coming to get? They say, we're coming to get Jesus. And Jesus said one little simple phrase, I am he. Now watch what happens the next verse. We don't see this very often in the crucifixion story. Look at verse 6. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. He just knocked a crowd of people over with his words. That's a display of power, is it not? Now, I love what happens next. He asks the same question again. Here it goes. Verse number seven, then asked he them again, whom seek ye? If you're smart and you're in that crowd, you shut your mouth at that moment. Because he just asked, who are you coming after? And they said, we're coming after Jesus. And Jesus goes, that's me, by the way. Boom, knocked him over. And then he asked him again, who are you coming after? You have to be stupid to say the same thing again. Because he's going to knock you over again. But he asked it. I asked you already. Here it is again. Who are you coming to get? They went, Jesus of Nazareth. You bunch of idiots. If he knocked you over once, what's going to keep him from doing it a second time? I'll tell you what's going to keep him. Grace. The grace of God. And he gave himself over while at the same time displaying that he had the power to knock them on their bums. Verse 7, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 8, Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. Therefore, seek me. Let these go their way, that the saying may be fulfilled, which he spake of. Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none. In other words, you want me? Take me. Let the disciples go. They have nothing to do with this. I'm going to the cross. I'll pay for the sins of the world. They don't pay for the sins of the world. They're not an innocent sacrifice. They don't have anything to do with this. Let them go. Peter grabs his sword right after that, and he's confident that he will not deny Jesus. He's already said it twice tonight, and now I think with his actions, he makes the same statement. Jesus, I'm not going to abandon You. If they take me to prison, so be it. If I die, so be it. I will not let You down. I will never deny You, Jesus. And he swings the sword, ready to go to death with this. This is a big deal for him. But can I say this? It's possible to be too confident in your own flesh. You can be too confident in your own flesh. You can think, I'd never deny you, Lord. I would never fall in sin. No, not me. Somebody else might do it, but me, never. I don't. And Peter's a lesson to us today that you can be too confident. Any of us can fall. It will happen. Jesus sends them away. Peter's ready to fight for the Lord, and Jesus sends them away. Hold your place here in John 18. We'll come back to it. Let's look back at Luke 22, and we'll pick up our passage. Verse 51, Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him. And just like that, that fight was over. The giver of life gave peace in the garden. he would not allow a physical battle to ensue in the midst of him fighting a spiritual battle. He tells Peter to put the sword away and the disciples took a step back and instead Jesus took a step in and he gave himself over. Let's read verses 52 and 53 as he gives a rebuke to those people that were there. Verse 52, then Jesus said unto the chief priests and captains of the temple and the elders which were come to him, Be you come out as against a thief with swords and staves. When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness." I was there in the temple, guys. I was there in the public. Anybody could have taken me at any time. I was there every day this week. Why didn't you take me there? And the answer is, they're a bunch of cowards. They did not want to take him in public because they were afraid of the people. They were afraid that the people would overthrow them and so therefore they did not want to take the people's hero in front of them. And so they took him at night and they came with swords and with spears. He says, what am I, a robber? Am I a thief? Am I just a criminal that you have to come after me like this? I wonder if those words didn't toss in the minds of those men in the subsequent years that came, as those soldiers sat back and thought about the day that they crucified the Son of God. Am I a robber? He never fought back. That man was different. And we know that. The centurion, the next day, as the Lord gave his life, the centurion stood on the side. There's never been a man like this man. He did not die like all regular criminals. Jesus calls them out and at the end of verse 53 says, this is your hour and the power of darkness. He allowed himself to be taken. Again, may I remind you, no man takes the life of the Savior. He lays it down himself. Verse 54, they took him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house and Peter followed far off. So many times Peter said it, I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. And I think that even with these actions, he's following through with his words. I won't leave you. They'll take you and you leave me behind, but I'm not going to leave you. I'll follow you. And he stays with Jesus. It's possible to be too confident. Remember that just an hour ago, he had a hard time staying awake. But in his flesh, he's doing everything he can to follow Jesus. I promised you I won't leave you. And he follows. I might pause here before we go into verse 55 because the book of John helps with more details. I mentioned that already. I'd like for you to look at John 18 with me. We will come back to Luke 22. Look at John 18 again, and I want you to see some of the details that are given in John 18 that help us to see what happened there. Let me paint a picture for you. at the same time we're about to talk about Peter's denial, and at the same time that Peter is going through a denial, Jesus was going through a trial. It was a sham of a trial, a very fake trial. The high priests want Jesus put to death, but they do not have the authority to put to death. Only the Romans have the authority to put to death. So what the Jewish leaders want to do is they want to find something wrong with Jesus that they can then give to the Romans. The Romans will use that as an excuse to put Jesus to death. They will become puppets for the Jewish leaders. and the Jewish leaders wanted to do a trial with Jesus and so they brought him in for questioning. Next week we will talk all about the questioning and the trial. Luke separates it from the denial. However, Matthew, Mark, and John put them together. And so what we will do is we will follow Luke's story, where Luke follows the denial, and then next week we'll talk about the trial. They were two events, but they overlapped. Remember, Peter is a subplot. Jesus is the main plot. It's all about Jesus. He's the hero. And yet we see, Luke draws out, here is Peter, and Peter did deny the Lord. Jesus called it, it happened. And so if you would think with me about the way that Jewish streets work, their homes are very different from our homes. Our homes, we have a house with a yard. For them, they have a street with houses lining the streets. They do not have yards, so to speak. If you were to stand on the street and look down the road, you would be looking down, as it were, two walls, a wall on each side. Each house joined hard to the next house so that the face of the houses create a wall made of stone, block, cement, plaster, You have a solid face on both sides. Along the wall, there will be a door that goes into a house or a door that goes into a courtyard. And that's where they would have the yard. But the face provides that security to keep people from going into the home. They led Jesus down the road. They came to a gate. We'll see this in a minute. They came to a gate. A young lady opened the gate for them, and the soldiers left Jesus with the temple guards and with the chief priests, the scribes. They entered into the courtyard, and the soldiers went on back. Their job is complete. They've been paid to provide security while Jesus is arrested. Their job is finished, and they went to the house. The scribes and the chief priests entered into the courtyard, and if you can just imagine with me, this courtyard is open, and there are houses around the courtyard that open out to the courtyard. You can think of perhaps a two-story house where the upper level would have a veranda. And there's a house for Annas on one side and a house for Caiaphas on the other side. One is the father-in-law, the other one is the son-in-law. And both of them have been high priests. Now let me say this, those guys are breaking the Old Testament law. Now, they're telling people that they're leading them by the Old Testament law, and yet, with their own actions, they're breaking it. Two ways. One, Annas was the high priest first. Now, the Old Testament law says that when a man is the high priest, he will be the high priest for life. And He only gives it up when He dies. And that's a beautiful picture. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ is our High Priest and He ever lives. And the job of the High Priest is for Him to go between man and God. And that's what Jesus does for us as the accuser of the brethren, according to 1 John, as the accuser of the brethren. comes to God the Father, Jesus Christ stands as the nameless one between us and God the Father. And Jesus Christ is our High Priest ever interceding for you and I, and He takes His own blood and places it and says, See, Father, I, Jesus, took the sin of the world and took it away. There is nothing else that can be done to accuse these saints. And that's our High Priest He ever lives. And so the Old Testament picture was for a high priest to be high priest until he died, but not Annas. Annas decided he'd be high priest for a little while and then he stepped down and let somebody else take it. And then that guy would be high priest for a little while and Annas would get it back. And then he'd be high priest for a little while and he'd step down. These guys were playing politics games. Whoever was in power in Rome, they needed to find somebody that was in their leadership that would get along with that guy. This is all corruption at its finest. Furthermore, when one high priest passed away, it was supposed to be his son that would take it. The son would take it, like a king does. And if there is no son, then it should go to a nephew. And yet, Annas stepped down and Caiaphas took it. Caiaphas is his son-in-law. You don't have any place in the Old Testament for a son-in-law to become the high priest. It has to be the son, not the son-in-law. This is a mess. These guys are supposed to be leading and yet they're breaking the law that they're claiming to be leading. Caiaphas is high priest and John points out the sham that it is because he says, Caiaphas was high priest that year. You don't get it for that year, you get it for life. And here's Caiaphas as the high priest for that year, and yet his father-in-law is the one with all the wisdom. And so they take Jesus to Annas, the father-in-law, first. They lead Jesus in, and there's the courtyard. Now look with me, if you will, John chapter 18, verse 15. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That's John's way of saying his own name. All throughout the book of John, he never writes his own name. He always writes, the other disciple. And there are times when he says things like, the disciple that Jesus loved, he's talking about himself. I don't know if maybe that's his way of saying Jesus loved me more than he loved all the other ones. I don't know. Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple, John. And that disciple, John, was known unto the high priest and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. So you got this picture, there's this courtyard, and they lead Jesus in there, and the chief priest can go in, the elders can go in, the scribes can go in, the temple guards can go in, and John, he's like, yep, I know these guys and they know me, and John just walks right in like he owns the place. He's in there, but they don't know Peter. Peter's stuck out in the street still. Peter's out there in the road, in the street, He's as close as he can get because they closed the gate on him. And he's hanging out out there. I wonder what he's thinking right now. I promised him that I wouldn't deny him. I'd follow him. Let's read the next verse. Verse 16, but Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known under the high priest. John came out and spake unto her that kept the door and brought in Peter. And so here John comes, there's a young lady taking care of the gate, and he says, hey, would you, that one, he's with me. And he lets Peter in to the courtyard with them. The young lady closes the gate again. It seems that she does not stay at the gate, and instead she seems to be roaming around in the courtyard. If you'll hold your place here in John 18, we're going to come right back to it. Look over at Luke 22, and you'll get a piece of the picture here. This is Luke 22, verses 55 and 56. Look at verse 55. Peter's now inside the courtyard, verse 55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said, this man was also with him. Now, keep that in mind. It's a young lady that talked to him. Now look back at John 18 again in verse number 17, and you'll see which young lady it was that just said this. Verse 17, John 18, 17. Then said the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, art not thou also one of this man's disciples? And he said, I am not. So here is a young lady that's keeping the gate. John came and said, hey, I need to get Peter in here. And she opened it, and Peter came in. After a little while, Peter's standing by the fire. It's cold. He's warming his hands. It's night. It's dark out. He's warming his hands by the fire. And that lady that was at the gate, the young lady, the maid, comes along beside them. And she looks over at Peter and goes, hang on a second, aren't you one of his disciples? Peter, nope, it's not me. Peter never expected that a denial would be that easy. Remember what I said? He was too confident. All of us can be too confident. And he was too confident. He expected, stand me in front of the Sanhedrin, beat me, whip me, kill me, I won't back down. But here, just a little girl, She doesn't matter. To her, it doesn't matter. She's a nobody. Aren't you one? Nah, be quiet. Hush up. Me and John, we're fishermen. We go back a long way. I don't know who that guy is. Got nothing to do with him. And it was so easy to fall. Can I remind the church? It's so easy to fall. Peter was ready to fight for this one. He was ready to kill people for this one. and yet he was too confident. Keep going in the passage. Come back to Luke 22 again. We'll be in verse 58. Meanwhile, there's a trial going on. We'll see that trial next week. The trial's going on inside of Annas' house. They're asking him questions. They're trying to get him to say things that are not true. They're taking words that he has said, and they're twisting them and trying to catch him in his own words, and they smite him. A temple guard hit him in the face, Scripture says. And I can only help wonder Peter is maybe, let's say, 15 to 20 meters away from Jesus. Jesus inside there. He sees it happening. Peter in the courtyard watching it happen. I can't help but wonder if Peter is thinking, Jesus, you've walked out of bad situations before. Why won't you walk out of this one? There was a time in Nazareth when they tried to throw him off a cliff. Do you remember that? And he paused time, as it were, and walked through the crowd. And they could not hold him. And I wonder if Peter's thinking, Jesus, you could do that. I've seen you do this. Why won't you do this? He doesn't understand that Jesus has a much greater purpose. Jesus, you've answered their questions on the temple mount, and you turned their wisdom upside down. Why won't you answer their questions now? And it has to do with everything about Isaiah 53, as a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth. And he did it on purpose. And there Peter sits watching as this happens. I don't understand why it's going on. Look at Luke 22, now verse 58. After a little while, another saw him and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. It's always easier the second time. Once you've done it once, it's no big deal to do it again. He denied the little girl. Now he denies a grown man. I'm not one of them. And he's now denied twice. Verse 59. An hour's gone by, the abuse continues, the noise raises, the tensions are high in that room. You can only imagine the beating that they're giving Jesus now, punching him in the face. They said things like, prophesy and tell us who it was that just hit you if you're such a great prophet. Jesus is enduring this, and all the while, Peter's there watching it happen. About the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed saying of a truth, this fellow also was with him for he is a Galilean. Do you see the strong words? Confidently, of a truth, with surety, this man is a Galilean. In other words, I've seen you with Jesus. I can even hear your accent. You even sound like a Galilean. Don't try to deny it. And he goes to the third time this time. Verse 60, Peter said, man, I know not what thou sayest. Mark 14 and Matthew 26 both add on, he said that with a curse. Can I help you see what he just did? Luke doesn't really develop it. Here's what he did. A curse is the opposite of an oath. An oath is, I promise with all of my being that I will, and you follow through with an oath. A curse is the opposite. A curse is, if I am lying, you ready, literally, let me go to hell. Do you know what Peter just backed himself into? He can't win now. Either way, he goes to hell. Ready? On one hand. If he doesn't know Jesus and he wants nothing to do with Jesus, and that's the truth, if he doesn't want anything to do with Jesus, and if you want nothing to do with Jesus, you go to hell. That's deep. That's tragic. And on the other hand, he just said, if I am one of his disciples and I'm lying to you, let me go to hell. Those are very strong words. He can't get out of this now. He's backed himself into a corner. On one hand, I'm gonna go to hell because I don't have anything to do with him. And on the other hand, if I do have something to do with him, let that be my curse. What a terrible thing to say. You don't get a stronger denial than that. And he just went all the way to the end and he said, let me spend eternity in hell separated from God. If I have anything to do with him, what a denial. Verse 60, and immediately while he spake, the cock crew. Jesus had called it. He'd prophesied it earlier in the night. The cock will crow twice before you deny me three times. You deny me three times and then the cock will crow. Jesus had called it. Now look what happens in verse 61. Here's a picture. I want you to paint this picture. Jesus is being moved from Annas' house to Caiaphas' house now across the courtyard. Peter's in the middle with the other people, and he's just denied, and he denied the third time. And as soon as he denied, that rooster crowed. And when the rooster crowed, Peter knew it and Jesus knew it. Jesus is being transferred from one side to the other. And can you just get this picture of Jesus as He comes out of the house, and His face is bloody, and His eyes are swollen, and He's coming out being led in handcuffs, They're going to take him across to the other side, and in that moment, the rooster crowed. Look at verse number 61. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Can you imagine locking eyes with the Savior in the moment of your sin? It would cause you to slow down in your sin if you could see what your sin costs the Savior. If you can understand and appreciate the pain that He went through on our behalf, as the Father poured out His wrath of your sin on Him, it will cause us to slow down in our sin. The Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he would say unto him, Before the crow thou shalt deny me thrice. Now look at Peter's response for 62. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. I don't know if that meant he went to the corner, but I have a feeling he left the courtyard and probably pushed that gate open and ran. Nobody wants to be seen weeping bitterly. And off he went to cry. It's the right response, by the way. It's called repentance, being sorry for your sin before God. There's two disciples that night that denied and betrayed. Judas betrayed the Lord that night. He came, kissed Him, realized what had happened. He tried to turn things around with the priests. The priests wouldn't take the money back. And that night, Judas went and hung himself and died. but he didn't have to. Because our Lord is a God of second chances. Peter denied the Lord, went out and wept bitterly, and God's a God of second chances. God did not leave him to himself. Can I get you to come over to John 21 with me? It's not the end of the story. A week has gone by now. Look at John 21. The cross is complete. The Lord has spent three days in the tomb, and he's raised from the dead. When he raised from the dead, he told Mary, he said, tell my disciples that I'll meet them in Galilee. And the disciples heard the message, and they went back to Galilee. It takes a couple of days to get there. They got back to Galilee, and they were waiting for Jesus. Now it says that Jesus appeared to them in an upper room, but this one was special. Now, if I'm Peter, I had a background in fishing, and then I spent three years following Jesus, thinking that we're gonna set up the kingdom, and Jesus gets crucified, everything falls apart. So what do you do when you can't keep going? You just go back to what's natural. And so he decides, I'm gonna go back to fishing. Chapter 21 in verse 3, Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing. And they said unto him, we also go with thee. Six of the disciples join him. There's seven of them in the boat. And they decided to go fishing that night. They fished all night long. And it says that they caught nothing. Do you ever find it amazing that when you come to Christ and you start following Jesus, that he makes it to where the stuff that you used to do just doesn't have the same appeal anymore? Do you ever have that happen? There he is, he's been following Jesus. I'm going to go back and I'm going to try the fishing thing out and it just, nothing. Got nothing. And all night they fished and they have nothing and they're pulling the boat and they're coming back. Can I ask how many fishermen do we have in here? How many people you go, yeah, I like to go fishing. How many people like to go fishing? Yeah, look at all those hands. There we go. Men, you should be ashamed. I saw a lot of ladies with their hands up. Here these guys are, they're bringing their boat back, they're pulling their boat back, and it says that they're a hundred meters away from the shore. And on the shore is Jesus. They've been out all night and the sun's coming up, it's dawn now. Jesus is there on the shore, they're a hundred meters away. They can see that somebody is there, but they don't know who he is. And he does probably, I've never lived in a Motwin village, but I have a feeling probably this happens to fishermen a lot. As the fishermen are coming back in, I'm just guessing, but I think that the people that are there say, how was the fishing? Am I right? That's what Jesus did to them. Hey guys, he uses the word children. What a loving term. Children. You have any fish? He already knows the answer. I said, sorry, we don't have any fish. Nope, nothing happened. Now it says that Jesus is standing there on the shore with a small fire going and it says that there were fish on the fire. Did you ever wonder where those fish came from? I have a feeling that the same guy that could tell the fish to get away from their boat was the same guy that could tell the fish to hurry up and get on the fire. He tells the disciples, boys, throw the net on the other side. I don't know if they've picked up on it yet, but this story has happened before. There was another time when they were in the boat and they'd been fishing all night, and Jesus said, cast the net on the other side. And that time, Peter, with his big mouth and his leadership abilities, said, excuse me, sir, but I'm a fisherman and you're a carpenter. And you think that we throw the net on the other side, it doesn't work that way. But just to make you happy, we will. That's what he said last time. This time, they don't question. They just throw the net on the other side and they start pulling in so many fish they can't handle it. I want you to see what was said there. Look at verse 7. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved... Oh, that was John. John said to Peter, it's the Lord. In case, Peter, you haven't figured this out yet, that's the Lord that's over there. And Peter can't handle it. He jumps out of the boat. Say, grabs a jacket and throws the jacket on and he jumps out of the boat and he starts swimming the hundred meters to get to Jesus. Now, how do you like this? God let him go back to what he was doing before, and it had no appeal, because there was no fish all night long. He wasted his night. And then God gave him everything he ever wanted. What does a fisherman want? A full boat. That's what he wants. You're going to count the fish in just a minute. They're going to count the fish as 153 of them. If you're a fisherman and you go out fishing all night and you pull in 153, yes, sir, that's a good night. He got everything he wanted. He got a full boat. And you see what he's doing? Let go of it all, so that he might gain Christ. and he leaves the fish. I'm no longer a fisherman, I'm going to Jesus. I denied him a week ago and I let him down. But man, he is everything and he's my all in all. He's the greatest treasure there ever was. And you take all the fish in the world and put them in my boat, I could care less, I want Jesus. And he jumps out of the boat and he swims to the Savior and gets up there to Jesus and they have breakfast together. Now look at verse number 15. So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, I just have in my mind, they ate, and I think, he doesn't say this, but I think that this is a private conversation between Jesus and Peter. I think Jesus says, hey, let's go for a walk. And they start walking. That's just my guess. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these. We don't know what these is. I think we can put a lot of different things in that space. Do you love me? Peter, do you love me more than these? More than these disciples love me? Or do you love me more than you love the disciples? Or do you love me more than you love these fish? Or do you love me more than you love your safety and security? Do you love me more than a name? Do you love me more than your leadership position? Do you love me more than these? Peter's broken, and he responds. He said unto him, yes, Lord, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And Jesus said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jodas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, feed my sheep. So here we go twice. Do you love me, Peter? Yes, I love you. Okay, feed my sheep. Do you love me? Yes, I love you. Feed my sheep. And here he goes a third time. Verse 17, then said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And now Peter's gonna get broken because of this. Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time. Do you know why he's grieved? Because a week ago, three times, do you know him? I don't know him, got nothing to do with him. Peter, three times, do you really love me? Lord thou knowest all things. You know that I wanted to follow you to death and you know that I wanted to be with you and you know that I never wanted to deny you but I'm a human being and it's so easy for me to fall and I was too confident and now I realize I love you Lord. Judas, can I just pause there Judas? You didn't have to hang yourself. He's a God of second chances. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Can I encourage you this morning? I don't know what you've done to deny the Lord. I don't know how you've let him down. I don't know what sin it is that you've confidently said you would defeat. But remember, it's not you that lives your life, it's him that lives through you. And when you fall, remember, as Jesus said to Satan, as he said to Peter, Satan desires to sift you like wheat. But when you're converted, strengthen your brethren. You're going to come through this. Hang on. You'll make it. And when you come through it, help your brothers and sisters. Father, I pray that we would help our brothers and sisters when we come through our failures. Lord, I pray that we would not be too confident in our flesh and that we would be humble and realize that I too can fall. It's so easy. But when I come through it, Lord, help me to be a blessing and a strength to my friends. Lord, thank you for the story of Peter that you never covered it up. Went on to be a great church leader and you never covered it up. Let us know that we as men and women can fall. I pray that you'd help us to stand strong. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Matt Allen of Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We would love to have you join us for service if you are in the area. If you need help with transportation, please give us a call on 7009-1000. Again, it's 7009-1000.