side. John chapter 18, John chapter 18 this morning, we have been working our way through the book of John and we have entered into the phase of trials as Jesus goes to the cross, to die on the cross for our sins, the sins of the whole world. And we are gonna look at John's account, his eyewitness accounts, given to us, obviously, by the inspiration of God, and there will be times where we refer to the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, or Luke, because all four of the Gospels make reference to this account. They give an account, an eyewitness account, and these four accounts are supplementary, they're complementary. They are not contradictory in any way. And they are, again, a testimony and a proof to the inspiration of the Word of God, the authority and the infallibility of the Word of God. John chapter 18, and we look down in verse 15, and we read, And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith, I am not. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold. And they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself. So here is Peter at this betrayal and arrest, and now the trials of Jesus Christ. We know from a couple weeks ago as we began this chapter, we know that Judas had brought the band of men, the group of men, which included some Roman soldiers, and Judas betrayed Christ, and the kiss of betrayal And we know that Peter had already, in his zeal, had taken a sword and cut off the servant's ear, and Jesus had put that ear back on the servant. We know that as that group of men came to arrest Jesus, he made the statement, I am, or I am he, and those soldiers fell back. And yet they had continued with their mission, and they had now taken Jesus, and they had brought him before Annas, who is the high priest emeritus. Annas would probably have had the real power, if you know what I mean. Caiaphas was the official high priest, but Annas was the one who kind of had the power, kind of had the say-so. Caiaphas was more or less a puppet on a string, so to speak. And we know how that is. We know how there can be political officials who hold office, but there are other people who really have the power, who are really having the say-so in matters, and that person is just a public persona or object or mouthpiece for whatever the people with the true power are saying or wanting to do. And that's pretty much the way it was with Caiaphas. Annas had been the high priest for many years. He was the high priest emeritus and father-in-law to Caiaphas, and he had authority, he had power, he had persuasion, and he was no doubt influenced by politics. So now Jesus is going to appear before Annas, and we will get to John's account of his appearance before Annas, but there is a parenthesis of sorts here in verses 15 through 19, where we see the beginning of Peter's denial of Christ. Three times he will deny Christ. And we have to, in seeing Peter's denial, we have to see some preludes to his failure or a prelude to his failure. And I'm not saying that there are only these four ways in which people come to a fall, come to a failure, come to a place of public sin, of scandal, but many times we see in the place of a person who is a godly individual, an individual in leadership, an individual with great knowledge and ability, one who is a follower of Christ, who is considered for the most part by the public to be a spiritual leader, we see oftentimes there is a prelude when that person and there is a scandal, there's a public failure of that individual. We have known individuals like that. Some of them exposed themselves to be false teachers. They never had the truth. They were never truly following Christ in true loyalty and faith. Many of them are wolves in sheep's clothing that have public scandal, public failure. I remember a megachurch pastor several years ago who fell into sin, and unbeknownst to his megachurch, and this man was a national pastor, unbeknownst to his church, to his megachurch, to the national following, this man had been living in immoral relationship, in a immoral homosexual relationship for many years prior to it becoming public knowledge. And that man, from what I know and understood about his ministry, that man was not even a faithful gospel preacher. He was more or less a false teacher with some nominal Jesus type of following and statements and teachings. But upon deeper look at his ministry, he was probably not a saved individual who was truly teaching the true gospel. But there have been others who I've even known a pastor who I heard preach a Bible conference when I was in Bible college. Godly man, a man who I've even had him in class. who was a true gospel preacher who had a big church down south. And he, because of his physical ailments, he was recommended by his doctor to begin partaking in the moderate use of alcoholic beverages to try to help him with his physical condition. Before long, he became a drunk. He became an alcoholic and it was hidden from his church for some time until one day he was drunk and he was out driving and he got pulled over and then it became a public scandal. And the man had to resign from his church. He later was restored, not back to the pulpit, but he was restored into a ministry where he was able to exercise his gifts, but no longer was he qualified for the office of the pastorate. But he was a godly man, a Bible-preaching man, a man used greatly of the Lord, but there was a time where sin crept in to the camp, so to speak, and there was a prelude to his ultimate public failure. And it's a warning for all of us. It's a warning to me. It's a warning to each and every one of us. As I've often used the illustration of a dead tree, a dead branch, a big limb that collapses, that falls during a storm, oftentimes there is some sort of disease or rot that has been hidden in the trunk of the tree or in the branch of the tree or in the roots of the tree before that tree ever falls, before that branch ever comes down. And when that tree comes down, when that branch comes down, that big limb is exposed. And you see the inside, you realize there is a hollowness, there is a disease, there is something that has already eaten away at the inside of that tree, of that limb, that branch. Therefore, it collapsed in the storm. We are often warned as preacher boys, as Paul admonishes pastors, the elders in Acts, take heed unto thyself. Take heed unto thyself, he begins, and then unto the doctrine. And it's a warning for all of us. We are very focused on the outside. I think it was a former tennis star who talked about image is everything. He was trying to sell a camera, if I remember right. Some of you would recognize the name if I said it. I know that dates me, I know that's old school. But you can find the commercial probably on YouTube somewhere. But anyway, the individual would talk about image is everything, and that has captured our mentality and our culture today. It's about style, it's about image, it's about pizazz, it's about charisma, it's about putting out the right social media front, whatever it might be, and it's all about style and image. And too often, there is a lot of style and very little substance. And Jesus Christ is working on Peter. He even told Peter that Satan wants to sift him as wheat. But he reminded Peter, I'm praying for you. Oh, that we would be reminded as we look at Peter and the prelude to failure, the prelude to his denial, that we would take warning, that we would take heed lest we fall. As we are warned in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse number 12, wherefore let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. That was the first of the symptoms in the prelude to Peter's failure. It was pride. Peter said that he would not deny Christ. We looked at that back in John chapter 13, and Christ had to take Peter aside and rebuke him. Get thee behind me, Satan, adversary. Strong words from Christ himself. Dealing with Peter's pride. In his self-confidence, Peter underestimated his own weakness. Maybe forgetting the teaching of Jeremiah in chapter 17 in verse 9, where we read that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is important that we not underestimate our own ability to fall. There's a lot of Peter in some of us. In all of us, there is at least a little bit of Peter, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're sinful by nature. We're proud people by nature. We think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We are already in love with ourselves. That's why when Jesus said that we're to love our neighbor, we're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we're to love our neighbor as ourselves. Why does he say that? Because we're already in love with ourselves. This self-esteem movement that has been in our culture for decades now, and now it's repackaged and redistributed as self-care. It's just another form of self-love. It's the egocentric, in some cases very narcissistic, me-first mentality that is so much a part of our culture. I'm not trying to disparage Mac or Apple. That's not my point. But it's interesting that it's the iPhone, it's the iPad, and it's the iPencil, and it's the iPod. And then we get into our own YouTube channels, and we get into our own TikTok videos, and then we have likes and follows and subscribers. And it's so much about me. Me, me, me. And so much of what is going on in our culture is nothing but pride. How can I get attention? We know the royal or non-royal family members that make the news. And it just seems like whenever there's a headline about some members of the royal family, the non-royal family members somehow make the headlines as well. So much of our culture is about attention. deal with it in school with the kid in the classroom who's just starving for attention and is always acting out. And I remember dealing with these kinds of students as a school principal and trying to help the teacher and trying to help the parents navigate through a kid who is just desperately seeking attention all day long in so many different ways and trying to get to the heart of the matter and trying to deal with what is really going on. And many times there's a broken home or a father or mother that's missing or something. that's going on in helping us understand that in all of us is this heart of pride. And it was afflicting Peter. He had a lot of zeal, he had a lot of knowledge, he had a lot of enthusiasm for the Lord, but he was tripping over his own feet, so to speak. He was tripping over his own tongue, so to speak. He couldn't get out of his own way. But Christ had not given up on him. Christ had saved him, had called him, was testing him and had tested him, was training him, was preparing him, had rebuked him, would then also, as we get to the end of the chapters of the book of John, we'll see Christ forgave him and restored him. pride, a prelude to failure, also laziness or complacency. Peter had slept in the garden when he should have been praying. In Matthew 26, as Jesus goes into the garden to pray and he prays with such intensity that he sweats, drops of blood mixed with his sweat. And he comes back to the disciples on more than one occasion, and they are sleeping. He had even taken Peter, James, and John deeper into the garden with him, and they are asleep. The leaders of the leaders, and even they are snoozing. How sad. Complacency, laziness, but it gets into all of our lives. we're not careful, because the flesh is weak, we won't depend upon the Spirit of God like we should, we won't depend upon the Lord like we should. And Jesus Himself reminded the disciples that night, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The seriousness of the situation as Jesus had been preparing the disciples for His betrayal, His arrest, His crucifixion, the seriousness of the situation demanded that these Apostles, these disciples, that Peter, stay close to the Lord, that they be in prayer, that they be in fervent prayer, and they're asleep. The flesh is indeed weak. How often do we get in pressure-type situations? Stress bears down hard. And what do we do? I'm not saying it's wrong to find a outlet We need outlets, but too often we depend on coping mechanisms, as the term sometimes is used, instead of getting in the word and getting on our knees and being in prayer. I'm guilty of it. A prelude to failure in Peter's life was his pride, but also a laziness, a complacency, not being in prayer, being asleep in the garden as the very son of God, his Christ, his Messiah, his leader. The very Christ is there praying for them and praying for the circumstances that were about to come as he knew he was about to be betrayed and to die on the cross for the sins of the world, the agony and the intensity of his prayer. And yet the disciples are snoozing. And so often the prelude to failure is because we're complacent in our prayer life. We want God to work out all of the problems and to take care of all the challenges and relieve all the stress. But we don't. come boldly before the throne of grace. We don't ask, seek, and knock. We don't cast our burdens upon the Lord like we should. We're not fervent in prayer as we're reminded to pray always. Pray without ceasing. So pride, laziness, or complacency, and then a third prelude to to failure is doubts or misunderstanding. Doubts, misunderstanding. Peter had pulled out his sword to defend Christ. He cut off the servant's ear. He doubted God's ability to protect his own very son. Christ told Peter in Matthew 26 that he could have called 12 legions of angels to deliver him. As the songwriter would write, he could have called 10,000 angels. Yet he died alone for you and me. Peter's doubt came from where? It came from a heart of unbelief. He misunderstood what Christ said because of his own lack of faith. And how often do we do dumb things, sinful things, we run ahead of God. We are disobedient because of our own lack of faith and trust, because we're not in tune to what God is teaching us from his word. We're not listening to godly counsel. We're not in the word and in prayer. We're depending on our own selves. And how often do we do dumb, sinful things because of our own failure to take God at his word and live by faith? prelude to failure, pride, laziness, or complacency, doubt, misunderstanding. But fourthly, compromise. Compromise. Without reading too much into the passage, let's drop down in verse 18, actually, in John 18, in verse 18. And the servants and officers stood there who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Verse 25, John 18, And Simon Peter stood and warned himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again. What was the compromise? It appears that Peter is following Christ from a distance. Another disciple, who traditionally is known as John, invited him into at least the courtyard where the high priest, Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. Annas, the high priest emeritus in Caiaphas, where Christ was on trial. So there is Peter, at least there in the courtyard, near that place, the Hall of Judgment, that eventually Christ would would be taken to, to appear before Pilate. So Peter is somewhere there nearby in the area. This other disciple, which may have been John, traditionally is known as John, and invited him to come closer. There appears that Peter then placed himself in the midst of this crowd there in the courtyard of the palace of the Hall of Judgment, where Christ was on trial. It appears that Peter, again, without reading too much into the passage, it appears that Peter is not probably where he should be. Now, Peter could have fled with the other disciples, or he could have stayed close to the disciple that is not named, possibly John. Instead, it seems that Peter is in a place where he is very open to compromise. And again, I can't help but think about my own experiences in my own life where I've been at the wrong time, at the wrong place, with the wrong people. And isn't it interesting that when you're with the wrong people, at the wrong time, at the wrong place, typically bad things happen. So again, I'm not trying to be overly condemning or judgmental here, but when I read articles about teenagers wrapping their car around a tree at three o'clock in the morning, I wonder where are the parents, why are the kids with a group of other teenagers, they find alcohol or they find marijuana or some drug that's in, that's affecting their judgment, their system. It's two or three o'clock in the morning, there's a car full of teenagers, and they wrap their car around the tree, and then you find out there's alcohol, there's drugs, there's some illicit substance, and I'm thinking, wrong people, wrong time, wrong place, doing the wrong thing. And there can be a mob mentality, all the mob, the crowd, and the persuasiveness of other people. I've dealt with it with students, with school kids. And sometimes there's the one guy, the one girl that's the ringleader. But there's always a crowd that seems to follow. And, oh, I didn't do it, I'm not, but yeah, you didn't participate times two through 10. You participated the first time, had a tinge of guilt, but then you just stayed back, and you clapped, and you cheered, and you followed along as times two through 10 happened, and then you got caught at time 10, and everybody's busted, and then you wanna find a lawyer and a jury to try to bail you out. That's part of my old principle side of me coming out. because that's what I would do sometimes with the kids. You want me to find a judge and a jury, and you want to hire a lawyer to bail you out of this situation when you set yourself up the whole time for failure. Look at this group of kids you're with. Look at what you were doing. Look at what was introduced. How did that get there? Somebody had the idea to do this or to do that. So then bad things happen. And you wonder why. Wrong people, wrong time, wrong place, doing the wrong things. Peter, it appears, was not where he should have been. And now he feels the pressure of the crowd, and he denies Christ again. We saw earlier, as we read, he stood at the door in verse 16, Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought him Peter. Then said the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples? And the first denial was, I am not. He's now warming himself. He's in that crowd. He's not where he should be. And by the time we get down to verse 25, as Peter stood and warmed himself, As we read just a few minutes ago, the question comes. Now notice in verse 25, it says they. In the parallel accounts, in the parallel accounts, again, that complement and supplement not contradict. In Matthew 26, for example, the statement is made that another maid, another servant girl asked him. But John says they. Mark's account says that that same servant girl asked him. So taking these eyewitness accounts and putting them together, supplementary, complementary accounts, Peter is probably getting badgered. The serving girl has already asked him, aren't you one of his disciples? And now the crowd kind of picks up and you've been there, I've been there. Somebody picks up on, again, you're not always there. In this case, it seems that Peter's in the wrong place at the wrong time, so now the questions are coming. Sometimes you're innocently in a place, and the questions begin to come. Well, they pick up. And what is John's account? They. There are several of them, probably, that are now questioning Peter. Yeah, you're one of his disciples. Yeah. You. You've been with Jesus. You're one of his. The questions are coming from different people, from the crowd, so to speak. So Peter feels the pressure. Verse 25, he denied it and said, I am not. In Matthew, in the book of Matthew, in chapter 26, Peter goes so far as to swear with an oath. Now he is saying, with a oath, swearing, as we might say, and again, not knowing exactly the Jewish vernacular, But we would say, I swear upon my word, or however the kids would say it growing up, double dare, a double dog, double dare, or however they would say it. Peter is saying, I swear upon my word, or however he would have phrased it, I am not one of his disciples. Unbelievable. who had walked on the water, who had been with Christ in so many places, who had heard Christ teach, and now he is swearing with an oath, I'm not one of his disciples, as he feels the pressure of the crowd. And then, as we just read there, verses 26 and 27, the pressure comes even further. One of the servants of the high priest, verse 26, being his kinsman, whose ear Peter cut off, sayeth, did not I see thee in the garden with him? Now it's a kinsman, a relative of that servant who Peter's sword had chopped off that servant's ear. Now that family member is really putting the pressure on Peter. And what does Peter do? We know from Matthew 26 and verse 71, Peter begins to curse and to swear. The words came out of Peter's mouth that he was probably even shocked to hear, that he probably hadn't used since his rough days along the Sea of Galilee as a rough fisherman. And they're now coming out of his mouth. And if you've ever been there, I've been there. And soon as those words come out of my mouth, uh-oh. And if I was around my mom and dad, I was six feet under. But I've been there, soon as that word or that phrase or whatever it was that was unkind or unsavory came out of my mouth. I can't believe I just said that. He cussed in the presence of all those people that he should have been sharing the gospel with, that he should have been loyal to Christ in front of. He's cussing, he's swearing. using unsavory language to prove I am not one of his. And can I say, without going on too much of a rabbit trail, that Ephesians tells us, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying. What is a earmark of the world? Unsavory language, corrupt communication. It should not be a part of our conversation. I get so frustrated. I used to do it as a school principal, as a Christian school principal. Why are we even joking about those things? Why are we even going there? What is the point in going to that area, to that gutter? Why? Christians who claim the name of Christ and every other sentence is foul language. Oh, but I'm behind a screen. It's just the keyboard. It's the keyboard that did it. The corrupt communication, it is a mark of a Jesus denier. But in Christianity today, in so-called Christianity today, in evangelicalism, it seems like bad language, taking the name Lord in vain, in all kinds of other filthy words, it's just normal. And again, without getting too much on a rabbit trail here, some of the reason that it keeps coming out of our mouth is because of what we're pumping in. and what we're listening to, and what we're watching, and what we're reading, and the company we keep. And no wonder it's coming out. No wonder it just rolls off our tongue. Because garbage in, garbage out. Because we're drinking from the sewer. We're listening to it pumped into our ears and into our mind. So it's no wonder it comes out. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Here's Peter, who had proclaimed with his mouth that he would die for Christ, and now he's denying Christ. In his pride, in his laziness and complacency, in his doubt and misunderstanding, and now in full-fledged compromise, he's denied Christ. Three times, in verse 27, and immediately the cock crew. The words that just come out of Peter's mouth, no doubt the conviction as he heard those words, I can't believe what I just said. And then in Luke 22 and verse 61, Jesus turned and made eye contact with Peter. And if you've ever had that look from a parent, from an authority figure, and you want to crawl underneath your desk, you want to go hide under your bed in your room, I was a foolish little first or second grader, and I went under my railroad set in my bedroom and tried to cut my hair, because I didn't want to go to the barber. And I came out, and it was all over what I used to have on top of my head, called hair. And my mom and dad looked at me like, what in the world do you think you're doing? That was just a little first or second grader. And I felt about that small. I've been caught in class doing something I shouldn't have been doing and all the eyes look, but there's nothing like the conviction of the Holy Spirit. As Peter looked across and he saw Jesus across that courtyard and Christ made eye contact with Peter. In the conviction, and what did Peter do? He went out and he wept bitterly. Oh, that we would have that kind of conviction. Oh, that we would have that kind of repentance. Oh, that we would once again see our sin the way God sees it and have that kind of rebuke in our soul and in our spirit and go out and we bitterly. One of the reasons that we are in such a state of disarray in discord and evil in our culture is we've lost repentance even among God's people. And it's about winning the argument, never ever admitting that I'm wrong about anything at any time. It's about proving that I'm better than you and bigger than you and stronger than you and smarter than you. And Peter had to come to a place where he went out and he wept bitterly that day before he was ever going to stand in Acts chapter two and preach one of the greatest sermons that ushered in the beginning days of the church. And Christ knew that Peter never could stand in that pulpit until Peter was on his knees weeping bitterly. And so many times we want to be on top, but we don't ever want to be low and contrite with a broken heart before God. But that's where we need more grace, to be humble. We need grace to be broken. As David would write in Psalm 51, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. But we think in our mentality today that it's about bulldozing and climbing over and dog eat dog. When the Bible makes it very clear, we're to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will lift us up. And sometimes we have to get a big hunking piece of humble pie. And we gotta eat it all the way down to the last crumb. And it may mean getting on our knees, it may mean going to someone and asking for forgiveness, it may mean that we have to admit a fault, a sin, a failure in a place that we once stood proud, but will never be used of the Lord for not broken before him. We're not saying that Peter should have done what he did. Obviously not. There was a prelude to his failure that we all must learn from. But we also need to heed the warning and see the example and follow in Peter's steps. When that conviction comes, when the eyes of Christ, through the word of God, expose our sin and convict us, we have to go out and we have to weep bitterly like Peter did in true repentance before we can ever truly be used of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, I ask that you will help us to be a humble people, help us to heed the warning of Peter's denial, to watch out for the pride, the laziness and complacency, the doubt and the misunderstanding And Lord, the compromise. The compromise often comes in a small area, but it's because we've let down our guard in the other areas. And Lord, help us to learn from Peter's example, but Lord, help us to also follow in Peter's example when we do fail, when we do sin, to weep bitterly, to be broken before you, to confess and to forsake our sins, knowing that you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, we thank you for this passage. Lord, do your work in our hearts. Prepare our hearts even now for our Lord's table observance of communion, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.