Well, welcome this morning. We again are working our way through the gospel of Luke. We are in chapter 22. Today, verses 54 through 62. 54 through 62 of the 22nd chapter of Luke's gospel. I would ask that you would join me as we ask for the Lord's guidance and that he would give us ears to hear this message today. Gracious Father, we do thank you that Christ is risen and that we are the beneficiaries of such a great reward as you were the one who vindicated your name as you faithfully proclaimed the glories of your son before a humanity and a people who would reject you. And Lord, we see in that resurrection that we, your people, have been given the gift to have right relationship with you. Lord, would you help us to have ears to hear today? Would you unstop our ears and uncover our eyes? Because we do not have enough health in us to rightly understand. And because of the presence of your spirit, we would ask that you would help us to understand, and not only to understand, but also to be doers of your word. Thank you for the blessing of your word to us. Thank you for the gift of yourself for us. And we would ask again that we would honor you in that. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version, beginning in verse 54. And then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a slave girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, this man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, woman, I do not know him. And a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. And Peter said, man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, certainly this man also was with him for he too is a Galilean. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about. And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he said to him, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. As we continue moving with Luke towards Jesus's divine destiny, with his death on the cross, we see the logical progression of the divine must. What is it that Jesus must do? What has Jesus been saying throughout our look as we've been moving through Luke that he must do? And we begin to see now the logical progression of that divine must. Judas' betrayal has come to a completion. And now that that betrayal has been complete, now comes the arrest of Jesus. And Luke shares with us three events following Jesus' arrest. Verses 54 through 62 that we look at today is Peter's denial. The next event is the mocking of Jesus in verses 63 through 65. And then we see Jesus' appearance before the high priest in verses 66 through 71. Today, we will look at Peter's denial. Earlier, you know, in chapter 22 of this chapter that we're in, Jesus foretold of the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter. And now Peter's hour has come. It's come to fulfill the words of his Lord, the ones that his Lord spoke to him. Jesus foretold of Peter's denial in chapter 22, verse 34, when he said to Peter, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me. Peter's denial is recorded in all four gospels, and in all four of the gospel events, we are told that it happens during the night of Jesus' betrayal by Peter, Not only does it happen at night, it happens in the courtyard, usually around a fire, that all three denials are recorded by all four of the gospel writers. A maidservant is mentioned in all four of the gospel presentations. And always presented is this rooster that crows and immediately right after the last denial or the third denial of Peter. So we have a fourfold gospel witness that this event was a real historical event. The story continues as we are moved from the Mount of Olives last week and this time back into the city and this time Jesus coming back into the city, he's escorted by a large group of people and even a few hundred soldiers. It's not the normal way that he would come back into the city after an evening on the Mount of Olives, but this evening it's the way that he's brought back in. And the situation begins to escalate as we see many more people involved at this point in the life and ministry of Christ. This crowd ushers Jesus in his rest back to the house of the high priest. Now, since the high priest is a title that stays with a person for the whole of their life, kind of like our Supreme Court justices, that title's a title that stays with a person for their whole life, whether they're serving presently that year or had served in the past, it kind of makes this story a little more complicated. It just says, went to the house of the high priest. That's what Luke says. Now fortunately, as we look at some of the other gospel writers, we begin to see that there are a couple of names that are mentioned. Annas is mentioned in John 18 as the high priest and also Caiaphas in Matthew chapter 26. So you would think, now that we have two names here mentioned, that we would know who that is. And the reality is that we still don't know a lot about the story. You would think, well look, if they took him to Annas' house, we would know that's where it took place. Or if they took him to Caiaphas' house, we would know that's where it took place. Well, Annas and Caiaphas lived in the same house, just in different wings. as the high priest. And also we do have some overlap in the time of Israel's history where we have multiple high priests that are serving. So without trying to get hung up in all the details, not to have your faith shaken, just because there's not a true mention here of one of the particular high priests, we do know that both of these high priests served. We do know that both of the high priests were involved in this event during this evening. And because of that, we see another historical reference and event in real time and real space. The truth is, we do not know a lot about actually how the whole evening went. We don't know a lot about whether Jesus was passed in between differing high priests. We know that there, we don't know if the event was one long event from the time of its entrance into the courtyard to the time of Peter's denial, or was it multiple events, smaller events that had little gaps of time in between as the high priests spoke to one another and to the Jewish leaders? What we do know, according to the text, is that the event started in the middle of the night with the arrest, and it ends in the early morning. We know that this to be the fact. Now, throughout the ordeal that we're presented with here, we see that Peter has trailed behind a short distance through each and every aspect of what Jesus was going through as he was brought to the priest, the high priest home. Luke tells us that on this evening there was a cool breeze that was blowing through and because of that there were fires that were lit in the courtyard and people were gathering around maybe these fire pits to keep themselves warm. Now one of the things that I would ask, especially as a person who is older and would love to sleep, is why are all these people awake in the middle of the night? Is this just what you did? Was this like hanging out at a local Starbucks until 11 o'clock and talking? But we're talking about the middle of the night. You got work the next day when you get up because all the work that you can do is really by sunlight. So what is it that's kind of brought all of these people to this courtyard? It's evident by Luke that there are many people there. What we see is that Jesus being escorted from the Mount of Olives into the city, especially with such a large number of Roman soldiers who would have come along to do this deed, they have awakened a lot of the people, especially in the house of the high priest. And so these people are now awake, and now they are wondering what's going on. Neighboring homes that were close to that facility would have been awakened at all the commotion. And therefore, once you're awake, you usually stay awake. It's kind of hard to go back to sleep. And so everyone comes out to the courtyard and it's cool. So they begin to warm themselves. And the text tells us, Luke tells us that Peter found a place there in the courtyard around one of those fires. And he too is warming himself. Now he's a short distance away. We don't know exactly where it's located. He seems to be able to be in proximity to whatever's going on with Christ and his trial. He's not so far away that he doesn't know or he can't see, but he's not so close that he's really a part of it. He's trying to bleed into the crowd and see what's going on. Luke tells us, as all the other gospel writers do, that it was a maidservant who recognized Peter as someone who was with Jesus. And so she says to him, this man also was with him. This man being Peter was also with him being Jesus. Peter responds, woman, I do not know him. Now Luke and the other gospel writers never really tell us why it is that Peter has this reason to deny Jesus. Here we know Peter to be a strong man. He's a zealot. According to the previous text, he seems to be pretty good with a sword. I mean, if you're going to take off the ear of the person standing in front of you, it's not the first time you've picked up a sword. But this man is very capable with a sword. He has found himself to be part of a group of people that like to be a part of kind of rebelling. And so this strong man we see here is basically brought down to his knees by a servant girl. She's not carrying a sword. All she says is the truth. She speaks the truth that he was with him. And why is it that we see the rock? We know Peter's name means the rock. Why do we see this rock falter? Well, we know, according to our text, that Peter had been given a great weapon, the weapon of prayer. Jesus had specifically instructed them that they needed to pray so that they wouldn't be tempted and led into temptation. And we saw even last week that Peter had not done that. And here, as we move into this text, we see the words from verse 31 where Jesus had told Peter that the devil, the evil one, had desired to sift Peter and that that was going to happen. and yet he would not fall away because Christ had prayed for him. And here what we see are the horrible effects of Peter not following Christ's word and being ready through the power of prayer to stand against the temptation that lay before him. You see, Peter's confidence, which was so strong in a private and a safe meeting around Jesus and others with a meal, has now felt miserably So if this maidservant wasn't enough, right after this event, we see that a little later, someone else repeats a claim. You also are one of them. Peter quickly responds, man, I am not. Now this time, it's not a maidservant. It's another male who brings forth seemingly what seems to be an accusation, but just a truthful response that he's one of them. Now, in the previous verse, we saw that Peter had denied Jesus, knowing Jesus, and here we see Peter distancing himself from them, that is, Jesus' followers, the other disciples. So he's moving further and further away in the reality of his denial. And we see as he distanced himself from the association with the other's disciple that very soon the words from verse 34, when Jesus said to Peter, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me. Luke tells us about an hour or so passes. Peter's still in that same area. And the final denial is about to take place. Whether Peter realizes it or not, his fulfilling the words of Christ are about to happen. The last person responds to Peter, certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean. You see, it's Peter's accent that gives him away. I know that none of us in this room, being from Texas and especially some of the southern parts of Texas, have that kind of problem, being tagged because of your accent, where you come from. That's right, no, amen, that's right. Or our folks that are here from Georgia or closer to the East Coast or maybe Kentucky. I know you hate listening to yourself on an answering machine or a tape recorder or even somebody else that saved a message over the phone because you say to yourself, surely I do not sound like that. That's not possible. This is the same case with Peter. His accent gave him away. Peter responds, man, I do not know what you are talking about. In essence, what Peter was saying, man, you've got the wrong guy from the northern area of Israel. You see, the man that claims that he was ready to go to prison for and even die for Christ denies for the third time any connection with Jesus or even his followers. This man who was the rock, This rock has now been crushed to pieces and thoroughly sifted by the constant pressure that the evil one has placed upon him. And is with the third denial, even before the last word leaves its lips, that the rooster crows, signaling not only the dawn of a new day and the rising of the sun, but a dawn of the reality that the denial and that the rock has fallen and been crushed. And all of this, just as Jesus said that it would happen. It's at this point in the story Luke tells us. And the Lord turned, looked straight at Peter, and then Peter remembered. Dr. Earl Ellis from Southwestern Seminary said in his commentary that this particular phrase, this particular phrase in the Gospels is more charged with feeling, with the climax of this episode than almost any other in the Gospel accounts. That the Lord looked at Peter and Peter remembered. Peter has been the one who has denied his Lord, just as Jesus said it would happen. It is this simple glance from the Lord that causes Peter to recall Jesus' words concerning his threefold denial. The memory and the recall that Peter has is too much, and Peter leaves weeping bitterly. His heart knows what he has done. Whether or not he can come to grips and speak of it with his lips, his heart is the one that tells him that his betrayal is real. You see, again, the Lord's words have come true, just as they always do. And the Lord is the one who truly knew better than Peter, and Peter now knows that that is always the case, that the Lord is the one who knows what is true and he speaks the truth. Now with this text today, I'd like to draw for you five points of application. And the first point of application is we need to be reminded in a day when Christianity is spoken mostly of in terms of personal experience, our personal experience with God, our text today shows us that there is another necessary part of Christianity, and that is that our faith is grounded historically. Christianity has both a personal experience with God and a historical connection in time and space. Real events, real people, real sufferings, real joys, and real trials. And we need to regain this today in our society. A lot of people today in our society speak of spirituality, that they're spiritual and they quickly move towards their personal experience with God or some higher being. And Christianity always has the potential, because it does show and speak of personal experience, to be influenced or infected by being one-sided. That is where people speak only of a personal experience with God. And it's we as the church and as Christians that need to recover the historical connection that Christianity brings to the table. You see it in our worship, when we share the creeds together from the days past. You see it as we give biblical responses, even as we gave today. The Lord has risen, the Lord has risen indeed, straight from the scriptures, which the church has used for thousands of years. We need to be ready to recover that, especially in a day and age when personal experience ranks highest on the charts. We need to be reminded that if we don't recover this, that our tendency is to fall into what we see so prevalent in our broader church culture today, and that is the idea of moral therapeutic deism. Moral, because people think that Christianity is about doing good things. Therapeutic, because it's supposed to benefit me and help me feel good about myself. And Deism, because there is an acknowledgement that God exists, but he's really not connected to what's going on right now. It's kind of like the clock. He made everything like the clock. He wound it up and then he set it down and he walked away from it. And that term moral therapeutic deism is not something I've come up with. There was a report within the past 10 years looking at the religion of younger people. And this phrase was constructed by that author. But I think it's really moved into our church in a broad sense and not just with younger people. You see, we're bombarded with it by the Oprahs and the Joel Osteens who feed us a pop psychology to make ourselves stronger. It's about us being happier and stronger. And we can do that if we can manipulate God. We can do that if we'll just believe in ourselves. If we'll just look into our heart and really trust what we find there. I want you to know the scriptures are clear. If you look into your heart, what you find there is not pretty. It's quite grotesque. And 15 minutes worth of prayer on your own asking the Lord to show you your heart will show you how grotesque that really is. You see, it's imperative that we keep both our idea that God is a relational God, He's personal, He's real, He's alive. and yet that we stay grounded true with the historical reality of the Christian faith, because in the end, we know that really history really is His story. He's pushing it to His desired end, and that is victory in Christ. The second is that Jesus' trial really was an issue about His identity. Many of the commentators are going to argue that he was a revolutionary, that they were trying to take him off the map because he was causing problems. But the text is very clear, and Luke has been very clear. This trial really was about the identity of Jesus. Who was he? Was he who he said he was? Luke wants us to ponder and ask, which side are we on in regards to Jesus? If we side with Jesus, we are recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, as the one who reigns, as the one who has come to fulfill the Father's plan, that his claim is to be the one who sits at the right hand of the Father and judges this world. He is the King of Glory and He deserves our honor and He deserves for us to bend our knee and to bow our hearts and our wills to His desire alone. That's one side of where do you stand regarding Jesus, but there is another side. Do you find yourself standing over and against Him? And for those who stand against Him and not with Him, Upon his second coming, they will face him as a judge. He will come to bring judgment against his enemies. For what else should a righteous king do to those who refuse to give to him honor and submit to his lordship while he freely offered them a gracious lord and caretaker and savior? Third, Peter's denial exemplifies Jesus's knowledge of the future. It's God's Son who had known all along what was going to happen. There's nothing in these events that caught Jesus off guard or caught him unprepared. All was taking place just as Jesus had foretold. Now for us, that should give us a confidence. There come times in our lives when we struggle, when we doubt, when we question. And if you don't think that's really part of Christianity, your time's coming. There will be something in your nice little prim and proper life that you're cultivating right now where the Lord will stick his finger in and he will twirl. And when he does that, your faith will be shaken. Please know now that the shaking of your faith is needed. For you to be a different person, more conformed to the image of Christ, the faith that you have now is not enough to get you there. He needs to change you and make you more like Christ. And the normative way that he tends to do that is through his word and by his spirit, in coordination with circumstances that you say, Lord, I don't understand why that's happening. When you find yourself in that position, you need to know that the word of God can be trusted. Just as Peter found out the hard way, that he would deny his Lord three times. Once it happened, he remembered and he thought back, that's exactly what Jesus said would happen. And we as Christians need to be reminded that when we're in those times of trial, that we can trust the Lord's word. It's not a mistake. It's not an accident. Your struggling is purposeful. That's one thing, if you come out of this with almost nothing else, come out with the understanding that Christianity is about purpose. In a world that doesn't know if we're here for a purpose or a reason, God tells us that you are here and you are his for a purpose and a reason. That you may magnify Christ and you may glorify the name of the Lord and that you may show forth the good works that come from a life empowered by the Spirit, that those around you will magnify and glorify the name of the Lord. Fourth, we see that Peter was tempted and he fell three times, and Satan had indeed harshly sifted Peter. And this is because Peter did not arm himself with prayer, back from verse 40 and verse 46, like Christ had told him to do. Peter found himself, because of his lack of willingness to obey the Lord's Word, found himself denying the Lord. And yet Luke reminds us that Jesus had already prayed for Peter. Jesus assured Peter that his denial would not be a betrayal like that of Judas's, but that Peter would deny the Lord. And yet, upon denying the Lord, he would be restored. And upon being restored, that he was to turn around and strengthen the brethren. Maybe some people wanted to draw a distinction between what Peter said and did, Some would say maybe he didn't really deny Jesus, he just denied knowing Jesus. Because the text says, I don't know him. I don't know if that's a distinction that needs to be made. I do know that according to the text, Peter's response in verse 62 really tells the story, at least how Peter felt it and Peter understood it. We see that Peter the rock was the one who went out according to verse 62 and he wept bitterly. Peter's bitter weeping showed that Jesus's prayer for him would indeed lead Peter turning back to Christ and strengthening his brothers. The text never tells us that Jesus prayed for Judas. All we know is that Judas betrayed Jesus and he went out and he hung himself. They found his bloated body, maybe even a few days later, after that. We know that the text tells us that Jesus prayed for Peter, knowing even that he would deny him, he still prayed for him, and that he would be restored. We need to be Christians who are resolved not to be caught unprepared, as was Peter. but by prayer and endurance to bring forth the fruit of trusting God and using his means for fighting good fights. And we know that prayer, prayer is the Christian's strongest weapon of response during times of trial and strife. You see, this lesson of Peter is very tragic. Here is a man who believes that he will stand for Jesus, but he's not as battle-ready as he thinks. He hasn't even grasped the reality that it is the sword of prayer and not the blade of steel that will overcome those who are seeking to pull him away from his Lord and Savior. You see, without total reliance upon God and his means for us to gain victory in our temptations and trials, Even those with the most intimate fellowship with Christ will crumble under the pressure. It was the songwriter and singer Rich Mullins, the late songwriter and singer Rich Mullins, who reminds us that we are not as strong as we think we are. He tells us that we even have troubles trying to keep the thoughts of God that come into our mind, keeping them there for any amount of time. Have you ever noticed that? The Word is strong upon your mind one day. In that moment, you have these great thoughts of God. Within a few seconds, it's gone. You see, we are not as strong as we think we are. Truly we are frail. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are forged in the fires of human passion and we choke on the fumes of selfish rage. And with these, our hells and our heavens so few inches apart, we are not as strong as we think we are. Finally, Peter's failure is so painful that it leaves him in bitter tears. Now many of us, and probably all of us in this room as Christians, can identify exactly with this idea, even this reality. Many of us can identify with the plight, for we too have been there, have we not? that one besetting sin, that sin that never leaves, that torturous enemy where you're sure this time you've given it over to the Lord. It will never rear its ugly head again. You will never fall under the weight of giving into that. You'll never fall so low that you'll stop trusting God and you'll actually walk back into trusting yourself. You've seen the pain, you've felt the pain of doing that. It's not going to happen again. And you find yourself there again, weeping bitterly because You thought that the metallic sword of self-will would cut that enemy apart, when reality, it's the sword of the spirit and the power of prayer that is your strongest ally and your strongest tool in that fight. You see, we need to be trusting in God's word. When he tells us that it is prayer and it's the word and it's the power of the spirit, we don't need to be thinking that it's our self-will and our self-power or technique that's going to get us past such failure. The story of Peter has great implications for us as individuals, but also for us as a church. How do we as a church handle our wounded? Those who have fallen, those who have lived in denial, do we shoot our wounded or do we restore them? We think of King David who chose adultery and murder in the face of what God had given him in his life. And after he chose that, he was found out. And once he was found out, he penned Psalm 51. And in the middle of Psalm 51, David shares with us a plea beginning in verse 12. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit that I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. You see, our goal is to restore and to show the grace of God to those who have fallen. The church is a place of restoration. You've been the recipient of such a restoration. If God has called you to Himself, if He's made you one of His children, He has done so graciously. He has restored to you a right relationship. You see, when we find ourselves having fallen under the huge load of pride and self-absorption, we need to be reminded that Jesus prayed for Peter just as He prays for you as He's seated at the right hand of the Father. And His goal is to show you that you've been restored. Not just with any restoration, but the same type of restoration that Peter had. And that restoration was from Christ, the one who had been offended. And he was restored by the one who he had offended. You see, though Peter's failure was great, his victory comes through his restoration. And the reason why that restoration can be counted upon is because that restoration came from Christ. It came from God. And why is that the case? Because ultimately, God and the Son and the Spirit are about forgiveness of sin. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we do thank you again for your great mercies that remind us that we are a needy people. And Lord, as our consciences may now even be tormented by the way that we've acted in running to our sin and denying you and looking at ourselves, Father, I ask that your spirit would bring into real experience in our hearts the forgiveness that comes through the blood of Christ, that we would see that we are not as strong as we think we are, and yet you are a God who supplies all of our needs. Lord, we know that when Peter boasted, soon he fell. And Lord, for all of us who have fallen, would you, in your forgiveness, lift us back up? Amen.