A Journey to the Cross wk 3
Notes
Transcript
Peter’s Denial
Peter’s Denial
This morning we are continuing our series on A Journey to the Cross, in the Gospel of Mark.
This morning we will be in the last part of chapter 14 of Mark, as we looked at Peter’s Denial.
In week one we looked at the Garden, when Jesus prayed that the Father might remove the cup of wrath, but Jesus said, not my will but your will be done.
Last week we looked at Jesus’ Accusers and the false accusations and charges that they made against Jesus.
In our text we see Peter deny Jesus three times, just as Jesus had predicted, but at the end of the message we will flip over to John and see what happens after Jesus is risen.
Look with me at our whole text from Mark this morning in Mark 14:66-72
Pray
Pray
I. I do not Understand.
I. I do not Understand.
In our text last week, when Jesus was being led to face His accusers, we saw that Peter followed behind and came into the courtyard of the high priest.
That was in Mark 14:54
54 Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.
As Peter is in the courtyard, a servant of the priest points Peter out and says, You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.
Peter denies the fact that he had been with Jesus, and tries to cover it up saying, I do not understand what you are talking about.
Peter is trying not be found out as a follower of Jesus, by making it out as he did not know what the servant girl was say or talking about.
The servant girl once again sees Jesus and point him out, this time stating, This is one of them.
Have you ever been in a position where someone is pointing you out as a Christian, but maybe you are with some buddies and do not want them making fun of you, so you play it off or try to cover it up.
Or maybe you were in a crowd of non-believers, some atheist and you do not want them persecuting you so you play it off.
It could have been when you were first saved, or it could have been yesterday, but we are all faced with situations like Peter.
Where if we speak up as a believer it may cause us some problems, some persecution, or just some discomfort.
We may have tried to hide when it is brought up, because we do not want to be looked down on.
We may have all at one point or another denied Jesus in one way or another, or we may not have outwardly denied Him, but we hid from being known as His, or being used by Him.
There is a lesson we can learn from Peter.
The third time Peter was faced with this, he got angry, and it says in verse 71, it says Peter began to curse and swear.
Here the one that Jesus said He would build His church upon, the one that will preach the sermon on the day of Pentecost is cursing and swearing.
Peter has denied Jesus three times and the rooster crows, and Peter is reminded of what Jesus said in Mark 14:30
30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”
Upon remembering this Peter began to weep.
Peter one of Jesus’ inner circle, one Jesus spent more time with, and spoke to a lot, and Peter spoke up for Jesus, and even recognizes and states that Jesus is the Son of the Living God.
But even how great Peter was, we see his humanity, he did not want to be recognized by the crowd in fear that they may persecute him along with Jesus.
He then realizes what he has done and he begins to weep.
I don’t know about you and can only speak for myself, but there has been times in my life that I have felt like I let Jesus down.
I know there has been times in my life that I have missed the opportunity to serve God because I allowed my own humanity to get in the way.
These things have made me feel like a failure.
But one thing that I have learned from studying the life of Peter is that God never gives up on us.
II. Restoration
II. Restoration
John 21:12-17
Before this happened Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John had returned to their old jobs, their businesses that they had left, and went back to fishing.
Peter I believe feels like he has failed Jesus and therefore returns to fishing.
They fish all night and do not catch a thing.
Jesus says to these five disciples, you do not have any fish, another words you haven’t caught anything.
He then tells them to cast on the right-hand side and the disciples catch so many fish in their nets, they are not able to pull the nets into the boat.
This is not the first time this has happened.
In Luke chapter 5 Jesus is preaching to the crowd, when they people began to draw closer to hear Jesus, He climbed into Simon’s who we know is Peter’s boat.
After preaching Jesus told Peter to go out into the deep and let down your nets, but Peter says Master we have fished all night and haven’t caught anything.
But Peter still did as Jesus said, and caught so many fish that their nets began to brake.
Back in John 21, though after catching all the fish, the five disciples go to shore and have breakfast with Jesus.
After breakfast Jesus says to Peter, do you love me, Peter says, yes Lord, Jesus asks this for a total of three times, each time telling Peter to tend or feed His sheep.
Jesus is showing Peter that even though he denied Jesus three times, Jesus was there to restore the relationship and that Peter still had a call upon his life.
We might do things that we know will let God down, or we may feel like we have failed God.
But God says, you are one of mine, follow me.
Peter writes to Pastors, but these verses can be taken by all of God’s children.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
When we mess up, we need to know if we will humbly come to God, He will restore us.
We need to be alert because the devil is in this world with his demons trying to stop us from doing what God has called us to do.
We need to resist those temptations, those traps that Satan has set for us.
Knowing that the God of all grace will be there with us, and for us, if we fall, or fail God is right there to pick us up and dust us off, because He has a plan and purpose for our life.
Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus after His resurrection comes to Peter and restores the call upon Peter’s life to be a shepherd to his sheep.
We too can be restored to Jesus.
If you have not ever accepted Him as Lord and Savior you must accept Him, Jesus is waiting and ready to receive you.
If you have followed Jesus as Lord and Savior but maybe fallen by the wayside, or backslide some, know that Jesus is waiting to restore you.
Do you love Jesus, are you willing and ready to follow Him.