He's a veteran of the Second World War and he fought in Germany in the European theater during that campaign, during that war. And he was an eyewitness to several things. In fact, he was the sixth American through the gate to liberate the concentration camp Dachau. He was wounded in combat. He saw quite a bit as they marched through France and into Germany. And saw quite a bit. But, you know, if you know much about many of the men who are veterans from those wars, they're often very modest. A lot of times if you say, oh, wow, they're heroes, they'll say, no, the heroes never came home. Those are the kind of responses you'll get from them. Well, recently he was asked by a college professor, My dad is a home inspector, my father, and he does home inspections when houses are going on the real estate market and people want to have their house inspected to see what's wrong with it. He was doing an inspection for a man who was a history professor, and so my father was asking him about it, and the man said, yes, I teach U.S. history, and he went through the classes he taught. My father said, well, my grandfather, his father, had served in the Second World War and had you know, had fought and liberated Dachau and all of that. And this man said, would your father be willing to come and speak to my class? My dad said, I don't think so. He doesn't usually want to talk about stuff like that. And he said, well, if I gave you a letter to give to him, would you give him a letter and I would invite him to the class? And my dad said, sure, I'd be glad to do that. So this college professor wrote out a letter and he said, you have to understand, many of my students don't even remember the first desert storm. They're freshmen in college, they were born in 1990. They don't remember the first desert storm or the first Gulf War, let alone have any idea about the Second World War. The Second World War is ancient history to them, but for a man who lived through it to come and tell them a little bit of personal testimony about what he saw and what it was like to live during that time, He said that would actually make them a lot more interested and could really be a benefit to them. There are not many folks who are in the health and who saw those things who are around anymore. So he gave it to my grandfather. My grandfather's initial response is usually to say no to those kinds of things. And he read the letter, he considered it, and he thought, you know, have a chance to impact the younger generation, he agreed to do it. So he went and taught and told his story. I don't know all of what he said because I didn't hear it or see it, but told his story about what he saw. He's very modest about it. Usually when I've talked to him about it, the kind of stories he tells tends to be more the funny things that he experienced during the war and the funny things that happened during boot camp rather than the gore and the horrors of actually being in combat or liberating a concentration camp. And so he was able to go and speak, and I guess it was very well received. The professor even wrote him a thank you letter later and said, did you notice, he said, my students don't usually hang around the classroom when the class is over. They're in a hurry to get to another class or to go do what they wanted. He said there were a half dozen of them to a dozen of them that stood around and wanted to ask you questions. He said that means you made a connection. That's a good thing. Well, why was there a connection made there? Because you had a man who was an eyewitness to something that was really changing the history of the world. Things that we read about in history textbooks. But you have a man who was an eyewitness, first-hand account of some of these kind of things. And that eyewitness account had an impact. The reason I start with a story like that is because as we look in Mark chapter 14, the last portion of this passage, we're going to see that theme. The theme is witness. The theme is witness. Hence the scripture passage that we read this morning. You shall be witnesses unto me. The theme is to be a witness. To be a testimony. Actually, to testify and to witness are the same word in the Greek language. It's the Greek word martus. Now, I don't usually throw out Greek words because I'm not just throwing them out for fun. But you might hear something of an English word in that word, martus. We get the word martyr from it. A marcher is one who pays the ultimate price for being a testimony, for being a witness, and that is by giving his life. And so, the theme, this word is used over seven times in this passage, and the theme is throughout. Let's begin in verse 53, And they led Jesus away to the high priest, and with Him were assembled all the chief priests and elders of the scribes. And Peter followed Him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put Him to death and found none. For many bear false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing what it is which these witness against thee? But he held his peace and answered nothing. And the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And the high priest rent his clothes and said, what need we any further witnesses? You've heard the blasphemy. What think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. This is a little hot. My phone's a little bit hot. Again, Mark is going to use one of his constructions that he's used throughout the book. This is the third time he's using one of these in chapter 14 of Mark. We've been calling it a sandwich construction. What we mean by that is it begins with a story, an account, a narrative. Mark, in telling the story, interrupts that story and goes to another description of something, another narrative, and then he comes back to the one he began with, and as we've noticed every time, what's in the middle of the sandwich is the point of the story. What's in the middle of the sandwich is the point of all the whole narrative. Notice where it starts. And they led Jesus away from the high priest, and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders of the scribes, and Peter followed after him. What does it start with? It starts with Jesus being taken to the high priest's place and Peter following along. So we have this account of Peter following along, and that's where it begins. Now where is Peter following? even into the palace of the high priest, and he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire." Is he following like he followed the Lord in Galilee? Is he following like he followed the Lord at the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper? Is he following Him as he followed Him into the Garden of Gethsemane? No, he's following a little differently, isn't he? He's following at a distance. He's keeping his distance. And we're pretty hard on Peter here, but let's face it, he's the only one. Where's anybody else? All the rest of them have fled, right? He's the only one still following, but he's following at a distance. Here's Peter following Christ at a distance. Christ has been arrested. In fact, today, some of you have probably been there. If you go to Jerusalem today, you can go to a church. There's a building, a church building, a Roman Catholic church, I believe it is, called the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. You say, what's Gallicantu? Did you ever go to a Mexican restaurant and eat something called pico de gallo? like a salsa, that means beak of the rooster in Spanish. It's got a bite to it, that's why it's called the beak of the rooster. And gallo, gallicanto is the Latin word for rooster. Canto, we get word cantata from it, means to sing. The singing of the rooster. Why is it at the Church of Peter and the singing of the rooster? Because it's built over a palace that belonged to Caiaphas, the high priest. And if you go below this church today, not in the church itself, but if you go below the church, you will find ruins, and you will find cells where prisoners were held, and you will find what used to be the courtyard to this palace. It's not as big as you would think a palace would be, but it was a palace in that day. You could actually go to Jerusalem and stand in the very room Peter is standing here warming himself by the fire. You could actually go into the very room that prisoners were held, where Jesus was probably held when they took him to trial before the Sanhedrin. Now interestingly here, everything that goes on is illegal. If you look at the Old Testament, there are some very strict commands about how people are to be tried, and what kind of witnesses are to be listened to, and what kind of witnesses are to be rejected. And in fact, not only that, about 100 years later, maybe 150 years later, the Jewish people wrote out in the Mishnah, which is some of their oral tradition, rules for how a trial was to be conducted. And one of the rules was it always has to be during daylight hours. This is nighttime. Another one of the rules was that the high priest is never to tear his garment. That's actually in the book of Deuteronomy. Alright, we're going to see both of those rules broken here. In fact, throughout this, you find that at every turn, the Sanhedrin, in order to discredit Jesus, in order to get Him railroaded, are breaking their own rules, their own laws. This is not about justice, it's about revenge, folks, in their mind. You say, well, maybe Mark didn't really know, maybe he's writing to a, this is what some people say, he's writing to a Roman audience and he's trying to make the Romans not look guilty for killing Jesus and so he's trying to lay it on the Jews. Well, first of all, the kind of claims that would say that this is anti-Semitic, that it's anti-Jewish, Mark was a Jew. And Peter, his source, was a Jew. And Matthew, who wrote the first Gospel, has a similar account, was Jewish. And John, who wrote the fourth Gospel, has a similar account, was Jewish. Alright, so three of the four Gospels are written by Jewish men. So they're not looking to run down Jews. Okay? Beyond that, Josephus, who's a historian from the first century who was also a Jew, records that in the first century, on one occasion, that the Sanhedrin had a nighttime trial in order to get the verdict they wanted, because they didn't want to do it during the daytime and have a big uprising. So even Josephus, who was Jewish, and was not talking about Jesus, but about a completely different trial, said they used to do things like this. So to say, well, this is obviously, the Jews would have never done that. It was against their laws. Have you ever known governments to break the law? Governments break the law sometimes, don't they? They break their own laws. Sometimes they think they are the exception. Well, that's apparently what's going on here. And they take Jesus away to be tried. And here is Peter following at a distance. Now, what is one of the key themes throughout the Gospel of Mark? Discipleship. Peter's the only one still following, and he's faltering in his following. So that begins the first part of this construction that Mark is giving to us. It begins with Peter and the story of Peter following from a distance and watching what's going on. And then it goes in to the story of the trial. And the story of the witnesses and the chief priests and all the council sought for witness. See how many times I tried to emphasize that I was reading through it. How many times the word witness appears. They sought for witnesses against Jesus to put him to death and they found none. They don't find any witnesses. But many bear false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. So they get all these witnesses who are lying, and none of them can agree with each other. That's not usually good in a court of law when all the witnesses contradict each other. Then you have to wonder how many of them are valid witnesses. And then they said, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. Now here's the issue. What is he being charged with? Jesus is being charged with blasphemy. Blasphemy is to impugn the name of God or to claim that you yourself are God. Now to say, I'm going to tear down the temple in Jerusalem and rebuild it, that's not blasphemy. It might be not popular with the Jews, but it's not blasphemous. So they're grasping at straws. What was Jesus saying though? What does He mean? A temple made with hands and rebuild one not made with hands. And after three days, what temple is Jesus talking about? He's not talking about that building that Herod had beautified and expanded. He's talking about His own body. He's talking about His own body. Because what has He been very clearly communicating throughout His ministry? Look, ultimately, it's not in the temple where you're going to find God. It's in Christ. It's in Jesus Christ alone. You see, He is very God of very God. He is God in flesh. With our teenagers on Wednesday nights, we've been going through some doctrines, and we were going through the doctrine of Christ. And as we were going through the doctrine of Christ on one evening, we studied the fact that the Bible very clearly says Jesus is God. On the next week, we studied the fact that the Bible very clearly says that Jesus is human. The Bible tells us He's just as much God as God the Father. He's the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. But on the other hand, He's just as human as you and I. Say, yeah, we understand that. Folks, do we understand why that's so important? Why did He take on human flesh? Why is God encountered Why is God revealed through Jesus Christ? Because being the God-man, He came to be the sacrifice for our sins. You see, you and I, we owe a debt to God as sinners. The Bible says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all sinners. We've all come short of God's glory. Whether it's a big sin or a small sin, we are not living in such a way that brings glory to God. Sometimes those sins are big things. Sometimes they're things like murder, adultery, things that we in our mind say, that's a big deal. But sometimes they're little things, what we call a little white lie or what we call a minor theft. You know, my boss doesn't need all these staples. I can take these home. You know, I can use, I remember working for a company on occasion and I was a sweeper in a tool and dye shop. And there was another guy there who was the official driver. And we would have to drive these steel dyes to the heat treater and they'd harden them. And sometimes I'd be given the job if the other driver was running a longer errand and we had two vehicles. And I remember going to the heat treater on one occasion and the dye wasn't quite cooled, but they decided, well, since you drove all the way here, we'll just throw it in the back of your vehicle. Well, we had a pickup truck with a piece of plywood in the back so that we could nail bigger dies down so they didn't slide around while you're driving. Well, when you take a piece of metal that's hot, now it's not red hot hot, but it's hot, and you throw it on a piece of plywood, it started to smoke. And the guy looked at me and goes, oh, it's a little hotter than I thought. Drive fast. So I'm driving this pickup down the interstate, you know, and there's smoke coming out of the back of the bed. I'm going, I better get there quick. It never caught on fire, actually, but I imagine it was quite a sight to see smoke coming out of the back of the truck as I'm driving back. But we had another driver, and one of the things he decided was he wasn't getting paid enough. And so when he would drive, he decided, you know, if I stop and fill it up with gas, I'm going to go inside and pay and buy myself a 20-ounce Coca-Cola. I'm going to go in and buy myself a sandwich or a Snickers bar or whatever else. Well, you know, that doesn't sound like a lot, but if you do that every day, how much does it cost the company for them to buy you lunch and buy you a Coke and buy you that every day? And in the end, it's theft. And you know what happens usually when you do that? Well, eventually the accountant caught up with it, Said, wait a second, I've been looking at the credit card receipts and who's been buying all the pop and chips and candy? Pop, sorry, soda. And they found out who was doing it and he lost his job. Because it was that. Now, in our minds, we think that's not a big deal. It's not like I embezzled a million dollars from the company. It was just a dollar here and there. We think that's not a big deal. It's just a small sin. God overlooks those small kind of sins. It's the big ones He gets really concerned about. No. The Bible says that we were created to bring God glory. And whether it's what we consider small sins or large sins, we have fallen short of God's glory. We are not doing what God created us to do. We were supposed to be images of God, giving Him glory. Let me illustrate it this way. If you go to a mirror and you look in it, you expect the mirror to give you a good reflection, right? I mean, you don't go to the store and buy a mirror that doesn't reflect well. Otherwise, why do you need a mirror? Now, on occasion, we may wish we didn't look like what we looked like in the mirror. Say, wow, my hair looks like that. I never worry about that, but my hair looks like that. I didn't know, I didn't anybody tell me there was jelly on my face from breakfast and I've gone for four hours this way. But we're thankful that the mirror shows it, aren't we? Most people, you know, I mean, maybe we're tempted on occasion to say, you know, I want one of those mirrors that make you look thinner, like funhouse mirrors. Most people don't want the kind that make you look squattier though, right? And children have fun with those. I remember going to a place and taking my boys there and they're playing in front of the mirrors, think it's the greatest thing because you look silly in front of it, right? But we want a mirror that gives a good reflection. Now, let me ask you this. If I take a small rock and throw it at a mirror, Does it wreck the mirror? If I take a small rock and throw it at the mirror and shatter the mirror with the small rock, does it still wreck the mirror? Yes. Now, if I take a bowling ball and throw it at the mirror and shatter the mirror, does that wreck the mirror? Sure. Now, one might break it into more pieces, but the fact is, if I look at myself in a shattered mirror, it's not the right reflection, is it? It's not reflecting things the way it should be. We don't keep that kind of mirror on the wall generally. Gosh, if you look at this angle like this, maybe you can see yourself in this little wedge. No, we don't do that. And the fact is, we've all our whole lives, even whether they're small rocks or bowling balls, we've been throwing rocks at the mirror that's supposed to reflect an image of God, and it's been marred. And so when God is supposed to see His own image in us, what He sees is a marred misrepresentation of Himself. And because of that, God says that we are under His wrath. We have broken His law. and we've come short of God's glory. You see, there's a lot of people out there, they think their biggest problem is their relationships or their finances or those kinds of things, when actually the biggest problem any human being is born with is the fact that we are under the wrath of God and that God is displeased with us because we are sinners by nature and by choice. That's not very popular to say in our day and age. I know that. You don't talk about sin. That's not a word that exists outside of churches in America today. But what it means is that I have violated the law of God, and because of that, I am under His condemnation. Now, the punishment for breaking a law is proportional to who it violated. I've used this illustration before, but if a palmetto bug were to run across the platform here, cockroach, and I stepped on it, most people in this room would not be highly offended by that. Right? Most people would say, good, you got it. We would forget about the fact there's probably hundreds more in the walls. But we'd still be glad that you got that one. The ones that get loose and we can see, we like to get them, right? The other day I was out in my yard working and I have a fence around my house and I walked through a gate and as I pulled the gate closed behind me and I took two more steps, all of a sudden I felt a burning pain on my shin. At first I thought, oh, the fire ants have got me. But then I realized it was only in one place. And usually when the fire ants are on you, They like coordinate. You know, the fire ants are like, one, two, three, get him! And they get you all at once. But this was one, and it was a little bit worse than a fire ant sting. And I went to swat at it, and I thought twice, because I thought, you're going to get it on the hand if you do that. So you sort of just bolt. I just ran away. I figured, whatever's there, maybe I can run away from it. And I realized, I bet inside one of those tubes of my metal gate, there is a nest. So I go, and I get the bug spray, wasp killer stuff, and I come under one and stick this nozzle and spray it, nothing happens. The next one, the next one. And then the fourth one, which is one I don't, it's the furthest one away, it's the one I don't think the most about, which is probably why they made a nest there. I take the spray and I go, and spray it up inside, and two or three wasps fall out. And they're still sort of squirming, so I hit them again on the ground. And then I sprayed up inside again, and by the end, 30 wasps came out of that gate. They had got me on the leg, but you know what? I was mad. by that point. After he stung me, I thought, you will all die. I am getting that poison and I'm going to take care of you. Now, that's just my human sinfulness probably. But, you know, you want revenge. God's not about revenge. God's about justice and His law has been broken. When we kill a cockroach, nobody gets upset. However, if there was a kitten walking around this platform and I kicked it, Somebody would call the police, and rightfully so, not to abuse small animals like that and just be mean, cruel. And there would be a punishment for it. Now, it used to be in America that the punishment you got for something like that was less than if you harmed a human being. I'm not sure if that's always the case anymore today, especially if you're an NFL player. If you harm a human being, you don't always get punished. If you shoot yourself, then you go to jail for a lot of years. But if you kill somebody else, then you don't always. But just the way justice works in America sometimes today. But you had, you know, if I attack a human being, the penalty is going to be higher. If I kill a human being, the penalty is going to be higher. But what if the person I attack is the President of the United States? Now, I'm not advocating this. It's a crime. You ought not to do it, okay? But whoever the President is, whether it was George W. Bush or whether it's Barack Obama, whether it's Republican or Democrat, whether you like them or you don't, If someone attacks the President of the United States, they are attacking our government and our system, and the punishment is usually severe. Because it's not just an attack on one man, it's an attack on the whole country when you attack the President of the United States. And so what happens if you make an assassination attempt on the President of the United States? You're going to be dealt with a lot more sternly than if you kill someone else. It's the nature of it, right? Now, what is that showing? It's showing that whether it's a bug or a human being makes a big difference. Now, wait a second. Who is our crime against? It's not against the palmetto bug. It's not against the human being. It's not even against the President of the United States. It's against the infinite God who's perfectly holy, who made the universe, who made us to be in His image, and we are imperfectly reflecting that image. And so therefore we are under his condemnation and the only payment to an infinite being for an offense against him is an infinite payment. And so therefore it is important that the one who paid that payment, how are you and I going to pay an infinite payment? We'd have to do it for an infinite amount of time, right? For an infinite amount of time. But if an infinite being could pay that payment, he could die on a cross for a finite amount of time to pay that infinite payment. So the very God of the universe took on human form in the man Jesus Christ. He was fully God and therefore could be that infinite payment that we could never pay ourselves, that we could never satisfy God's wrath. And then not only that, but he was fully human. And the reason that's important is that In order for Him to represent you on the cross, this is the theology of Romans chapter 5. For as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. That is, one man, Adam, in the garden, representing the whole race, sinned and plunged us all into sinfulness. But on the other hand, the second Adam, for by one man comes righteousness, that is, through Jesus Christ. See, He's the second Adam who came. And because He's perfectly human, died on the cross in our place. So that not only is it an infinite payment because He's God, but it's a payment that can be for you because He's man. Because He's human. So God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And that's the Gospel. You see that What Jesus is saying is not, I'm going to tear down this physical temple, but that my body, my physical body is going to be torn down and I'm going to rebuild it. I'm going to come back from the grave after three days. And that if you want to encounter God, if you want to see God, if you want the revelation of God, you won't find it primarily at this temple. You'll find it in me. That's what he's saying. Now, they didn't always understand this. The high priest tries to provoke Jesus. He says, Jesus, aren't you answering anything these people are saying against you? He's trying to get Him to incriminate Himself. But Jesus held His peace and answered nothing. But it's not just out of wise strategy that Jesus is doing this. But He's doing this out of fulfillment of Scripture. What does it say? Turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 says that a servant of the Lord, the servant of the Lord, was going to come and suffer. Verse 4, 53-4, "...surely He that is this servant hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him." That is, what did they think of Him? What did the Jewish nation think of Him? We thought He was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. We thought He was being punished by God, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes, with His beatings, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone astray. We've turned every one of us to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, doesn't speak, so he openeth not his mouth." He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. Here is the testimony about what Jesus is about to accomplish in Mark 14 and 15. And that is when the Jews thought they were punishing Him to save the nation. to rescue their power, their prestige, and their national existence, what he was doing. And when some of them thought he was a blasphemer, he wasn't being punished for his sins, he was being punished for theirs. And the irony of it is that it pleased his father to bruise him, to crush him, as the Hebrew word says. That our healing comes through his bruising. and that he was not opening his mouth when he was accused. And again, the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Verse 62. And so Jesus does give a response to this because he's not going to let them be in confusion about who he says he is. He's already been clear on this. And Jesus said, I am. He says, So are you Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Are you the Messiah, the Son of God? Blessed is the way the high priest would. He didn't want to use the name of God for fear of taking God's name in vain and breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Breaking the Third Commandment. And so what does he say? And Jesus said, I am, ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. I am who you just said and you will someday see me coming again in great glory. This is what Jesus just said to him. Now isn't this interesting here? That up to this point in the Gospel of Mark, There have been two testimonies, and we're going to get to a third in chapter 15, that clearly say who Jesus is. Earlier, the man who's following at a distance when Jesus says, who do you say that I am, has said, you are the Christ, the Son of God. That's what Peter has proclaimed. There's a clear testimony to who Jesus is. Now, who does the second testimony come from? Remember, testimony is the theme in this passage. Where does this second testimony come from? It comes from the high priest who's trying to murder this man. It's the one that says, are you the Christ, the Son of God? The Son of the Blessed? Remember, there's a lot of irony in Mark's Gospel. And the irony here is that this clear testimony, when all the disciples have fled, when the people who should be the witnesses aren't witnessing, God uses the high priest to say, are you the Christ, the Son of God? And Jesus says, just like you said, I am. I am the Christ. And so the testimony, all the false witnesses can't condemn him. They're not able to bring enough evidence against him. But this testimony from the high priest that Jesus affirms is the thing that they then accuse him of blasphemy for. Then the high priest rent his clothes against the Old Testament law and said, what need we any further witnesses? We don't need any further witnesses. You heard him with your own ears. You've heard the blasphemy. What think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. Now, they didn't have the power to carry out capital punishment in that day, or it was very limited. They had to go to the Romans to ask for permission to do that. And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face and to buffet Him and say unto Him, prophesy. And the servants did strike Him with the palms of their hands." So even the servants, the slaves in the house are coming up and striking Jesus and mocking Him and making fun of Him. Doesn't that sound exactly like He was taken out of prison? Isaiah 53. Here it is, being fulfilled. Now let's go to the other part of the sandwich here. The last section. And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, and thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth. Wait, you were with him? But he denied saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch and the cock crew. So he goes, no, I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know him. I don't know what you're talking about. He walks out and here's the cock. The rooster crow. And a maid saw him again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. That guy, wait a second. That's one of them. And he denied it again and a little after. And they stood by and said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean and thy speech agreeeth thereto. We know by your accent you're from Galilee. You're one of them. You don't sound like you're from around here. Right? I mean, we can tell where people are from by their speech. I remember standing in a church parking lot one time having a conversation with some folks. And some of you know Glenn and Helen Fugere. They were in the conversation, and I was standing there. And there was a man from Alabama standing there. And so you have somebody with an accent from Alabama. You have Glenn, who has a Canadian accent, eh? And you had Helen, who's got an Irish accent. And then you have me, and I have a Michigan accent. Eh, Michigan. And you could hear all those accents. And we're all sitting there speaking with each other. We're all speaking the same language. But if you would have walked up and I said, which one of these people is from the South? You would have known. And if you've been around Canadians very much, and I said, which one is from Canada? You would have been able to point to Glenn Fugger. And if I said, which one of these is from Ireland? You'd have been able to point to Helen Fugger. And if you've heard my Michigan accent enough, you've been able to say, which one of these people is from Michigan? You'd say, I know that accent. Right? It's like being in Florida. You hear all kinds of accents. I always joke that, you know, it's unusual to find people who were born here. There are plenty in our congregation, I know, but you find people that are born here. Even people sometimes they think are born here. No, I was born in Alabama, but we moved here when I was a child. Oh, okay. But you hear a lot of different accents. You hear people from Alabama, people from Florida. And you have transplants down here, people from all over. And there's not a unified speech, is there? It's not like going, you go to New York, you know the New Yorkers are, right? Well, here, the Galileans spoke differently. They spoke in a different way than the people from Judea. And the Judeans, this was the more educated area. They thought more highly of their diction and the way they spoke. They pronounced the letters more correctly. And they look at Peter, and they say, you're Galilean. By denying it, as soon as you spoke, we knew that you're from Galilee. You can't hide it. And then what does he do in verse 71? And he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man of whom you speak. It's not just no, I don't know him, leave me alone. It's not just no, no, no. It's now curse words come out of his mouth and oaths. promising, no, I swear, I don't know him. And the second time, the rooster crows, and Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. Before you hear the rooster crow twice in the morning, you're going to deny me three times. And when he thought thereon, he wept. Find out he wept bitterly in another gospel. In fact, we find out that this area, and if you ever go to Israel and you see this area, you could see where he could see Jesus from where he was standing. It's very possible that he could look in. He was in the courtyard looking in and that he saw Jesus. In fact, John's Gospel seems to give the intimation that Jesus looked at him when he denied him the third time. So here's Peter who said, Lord, though everybody flee, I'll die with you if necessary. And now Jesus has said, be careful. Let him who stands take heed lest he fall because Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. And I'm going to tell you before the rooster crows twice in the morning, you're going to deny me three times. And Peter said, no, never me. Well, all the other disciples have run away. And here's Peter. He's come to the point of denial when he's cornered. Is he bearing a witness? See this again? Remember, this is usually coming, these kinds of things, faith, a witness, are coming from an unusual place, right? It's the woman with the issue of blood who has the faith. It's the woman who's Syrophoenician who has the faith. Here, where do you expect the testimony to come from? Peter, if any of the apostles, he's the boldest, right? Don't you expect him to be the one that says, yes, I'm his follower. But what does he do? Three times he denies that he's a follower of Jesus. And who is the one that says this is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Son of God? Who is it that says this? Now, he does it in a mocking way, asking a question, trying to trip Jesus up. But who is it that bears that testimony? The high priest. Now, think about the original recipients of this gospel. They are people in Rome in the first century who were being killed for being Christians. Herod, I mean, not Herod Nero, the Roman emperor, is executing them for being Christians. They're being persecuted. They are facing exactly what Peter is facing here. And what Mark wants them to understand is, look, bearing a testimony for Christ is important. This is something Peter is known for, right? Peter's denial is famous. These people undoubtedly knew this story. And he's telling it to them because he wants them to understand, look, even under this kind of a difficult circumstance, you need to bear a testimony for Jesus Christ. You need to bear a testimony for Jesus Christ. Now, it's very easy for us to want to say, well, yeah, if I ever get in that situation, I'll do this. No, you're in this kind of situation all the time. It's just not usually life and death. In the mind of Peter here, it was life and death. These people were going to kill Jesus. They might kill me. But the fact is, every day of our life, as we interact with people, we are bearing a testimony for Jesus Christ by how we live and what we say. And it's unfortunate that so many Christians want to distance themselves from Jesus. Folks, our job is not to make people think more highly of Jesus by being more like the world around us. That's a wrong strategy. That's been the strategy in 20th century, especially the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century now in America is to say, you know what? If we look more like the world, the world will like us more and they'll like Christianity more. No, they won't. Jesus said, if they hate me, how do you think they'll treat my servants? Right, you can never, wherever this is, okay, if you go to school and you get a degree in science, and you get a PhD in biology, zoology, whatever field, and you don't believe in the theory of evolution, it doesn't matter how many degrees you have or how many scholarly papers you've published, most of the educational world will think you're a moron. no matter how intelligent you are. If you go and you study philosophy and you have a Christian worldview, no matter how many PhDs you earn, they're going to think you're a moron. If you think the Bible is true and without error, people are going to think you're a moron. You go to any of the big name divinity schools, Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, you go to the big name ones, Claremont Divinity School in Claremont, California You go to any of those these big-name schools, and if you say the Bible's without error I believe it's true, and it's from God. They're gonna laugh you out of the classroom in seminaries in America Because they're more educated they know better And you know what we're tempted all the time to want to compromise and say well, yeah, maybe maybe I could do this or that and then they'll have more respect for me. No, the fact is what you need to be is a testimony for Jesus Christ. And you know, we've tried to do that on the cultural standpoint as well. We think if we're only cooler, and the culture will like us more. I'm not saying we go out of our way to be weird, or that we try to be Amish. Okay. But We can't adorn the gospel with coolness and think that's going to make it more powerful. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. What ultimately draws people to Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. And we think that if I come up with a clever angle, if I'm cool, then people are going to think I'm cool and they'll want to be cool like me and follow Jesus. No, nobody's going to become a real follower of Jesus, one who really follows even under tough times because it's cool. Every threat to Christianity has come from within. Have you ever thought about that? Every threat to Christianity has come from within. I mean, persecution from without has threatened Christianity at times. But, you know, China is an example. Other places around the world are an example. There are still Christians in places where they're persecuted. But you know what becomes the danger? It's not persecution in China that's the big danger for Christians in China. It's false teaching. It's people who are claiming to be Christians who aren't Christians. And that's why we have to be very clear about what the gospel is and about the cost of following Jesus, because if we're not, and we have a lot of false professors, that hurts the cause of Christ. It doesn't help the cause of Christ. It introduces false teaching into the church of Christ. It doesn't help the cause of Christ. And so if a testimony is going to be born about Jesus, it needs to be one that says, He is Christ, the Son of the Blessed, and you shall see Him sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. See, that's the kind of testimony that needs to be born about Jesus Christ. Now, we do it kindly. We do it winsomely. It doesn't mean we make up our own culture. I think that's the mistake that the monks in the Middle Ages and that the Amish have made is that there is our own culture that we can make up that will make us holier. No, but what we have to understand is whatever culture the Lord has put us in, we can't wholesale adopt it because every culture in this world is organized against God and not for God. And there are going to be elements of that culture that we're going to have to say, I cannot go there. I cannot do that if I'm going to be a testimony for Jesus Christ. I mean, there are cultures in the world where they don't wear clothes. Certain tribal groups in South America or in Papua New Guinea and other places where they wear very little. Now, does the Bible teach modesty? Yes. And if you're a Christian in that culture, you have to behave a little differently than that culture. It's pretty obvious that you're behaving differently from that culture. Now, we all understand that. That seems common sense to us. But what happens is when American culture has gone on a slide headlong toward immorality, the church has followed. We ought not to. It is not unusual in churches that I have heard this story multiple times now, where a man enters one Sunday with his wife, and the next Sunday with his girlfriend, and the next Sunday with his wife, and the next Sunday with his girlfriend, and the church... So what? Folks, that can't be embraced. Now, anybody who wants to come and hear the gospel is welcome to hear the gospel preached. Let me put it that way. If somebody's a part of Calvary Baptist Church and he's running around on his wife and our church knows about it, we ought not to condone it. If somebody's a part of Calvary Baptist Church and they're blaspheming, we ought not to condone it. Isn't it funny how we even adopt the world's words? A young man that I know, and he meant well by this, but put a update on his Facebook page the other day and he said, Jesus or Christ should be our idol. And I laughed at that. And I said, sorry, I'm a preacher, I can't resist this, but idols are false gods. Jesus is the one true and living God. I know what you mean by it. You know, we've got shows like American Idol, and so-and-so's my idol, and we have some hero. But the fact is, yes, Christ should be our role model. I agree with that. That's what he meant by it. But we've so adopted the world's words, even, that we're using a word that, could you imagine? Could you imagine telling one of the apostles, Jesus is my idol? They'd say, huh? What are you talking about? I mean, that would be offensive. He's not an idol. He's the one living and true God. He's the only one who's God. There is none else. And we've adopted those kinds of words. We've adopted and see what happens is it's so easy because we grew up in it, we live in it, but what we have to do is we have to say, wait a second, what that person just said, does that match the Scriptures? What that person's culture does, does that match the Scriptures? It doesn't mean we have to wear clothes from a different era. It doesn't mean that we have to do our hair from a different era. It doesn't mean that we can't use electronics. But what it does mean is that when the culture embraces that which is ungodly, we cannot embrace it just to be like the culture. And we're tempted to do this all the time, aren't we? Fine, it's no big deal. Make jokes about this, talk about that. That's part of being a testimony for Christ. We're feeling the same pressure of a different Intensity but the same pressure Peter was feeling here, and that is just in this little way Will it matter that much if these people don't know you're a follower of Jesus? One of the best let me just tell you this one of the best things you can do if you get a new job Or you come into young people if you come into a new school setting is to let people know from the first day That you're a Christian you don't be obnoxious about it But if from the beginning they know you're a Christian it changes it takes a lot of pressure off of having to fit in It really does Because they say oh yeah, oh, that's right. You probably don't do that to you Hey, we're all gonna get drunk Friday night, you wanna come with us? Oh, that's right. You're a Christian. But if you're an undercover Christian, then how do you explain it? And then what do we do is instead of giving testimony to Jesus in that situation, what we do is say, oh no, I'm kinda busy tonight. I'm not saying preach to the people, but just say, no, I'm a Christian, I believe the Lord wants me to be sober-minded. That's really what you believe, rather than saying, well, I go to a church that wouldn't let me do that. So you blame it on the church. I would get drunk if I weren't a member at Calvary, but is that really why? No, give a testimony about Jesus Christ. I don't mean be preachy, I don't mean be obnoxious, but let's face it, there are times the Lord opens doors wide open for us and we don't use them because we're afraid they're going to think I'm weird. Well, at a certain point, it's going to cost you something to follow Jesus. It's going to cost you somebody's school status, somebody's respect, something of that nature. For some of our brothers and sisters around the world, it costs them their lives. And we're worried somebody's not going to think we're cool. The question is, what kind of a testimony, that's the theme in this book, what kind of testimony do you have for the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, it's very easy It's very easy to say, well, I don't do this, I don't do that. No, no, that doesn't mean you have a testimony. Now, you can ruin your testimony. You can say, I believe all this about Jesus and be talking to people about Jesus all the time and then live a life that's contradictory. You'll undo everything you just said. But we think sometimes if I keep a certain set of rules, God's happy with me. No. It's about Christ. It's not about rules. It's about Christ. It's about any relationship. You know, if you have a spouse who You know, let me give you an example. I know a couple where the husband said the smell of tuna makes him gag. So he told his wife, please don't eat tuna. Well, if you're a good spouse, what are you probably gonna do? Not open a tuna, a can of tuna in the house, right? Maybe you'd take one to lunch or something. It's probably not really gonna build your marriage relationship if you like open a can of tuna and put it under the bed or something like that, will it? You know, the old college dorm tricks. We used to put stuff in people's heaters. A friend of mine got a can of sardines, opened up the heater, put them on the heater, closed the heater up and turned it on high. You know what the dorm room smelled like? Not good. Okay, that's not how you build relationships generally, right? And we have often not approached Christianity that way. We've approached it as, here are the rules I live by, just because these are the rules. Rather than saying, no, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And just like I have a relationship with a spouse, or I have a relationship with a child, there are certain things that when you realize this annoys the person, if you want to build that relationship, you work on not doing that. Right? Sure. And so to have a testimony for Jesus Christ flows out of that relationship that we have with Him. So let me ask you, what kind of testimony do you have for the Lord? OK, as I said, I'm not calling on, you know, there's some people that get obnoxious about it, that get preachy about it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just being a consistent witness for Christ. And ultimately, you'll see people, people, people will notice that. Some may become believers, some may not like you, but the fact is it's going to draw attention because it's not like the rest of the world lives. What kind of testimony do you have for Jesus Christ? Let's bow our heads.