Are We Like Peter? - Mark 14:66-72
Are We Like Peter? - Mark 14:66-72
By Pastor Lee Hemen
March 27, 2011 AM
There is a certainty and assurance that true Christians know and reflect in their lives. Others have noted the peace that believers display no matter what occurs in life. During the cold war a KGB agent for the Soviet Union had nearly beaten to death a young Christian woman. He warned her to never be caught again. Her crime was having a Bible study in her home and owning a Bible. Later, she was again caught by the same KGB agent. In disbelief he could not shake the peace that he saw in her face even after she was finally murdered by his squad. It haunted him from that day on. Later, he gave his life to Christ and had to escape Russia himself. How could that lovely young woman continue in her faith even after she was severely beaten and then later die for her belief?
Faced with a similar situation we find Peter not only backtracking away from his friendship with Jesus, he flatly denies he ever knew him! . Are we like Peter? Sadly, far too many of us would have been like Peter and denounced Jesus and our faith. While we need to be careful in equating what Peter does in the courtyard with some of our own actions, his denials can help to encourage us to be the believers Christ desires. Let’s therefore ask and answer the question, “Are we like Peter?”
READ: Mark 14:66-72
My father called it "willful disobedience." He described it as when we knew we were supposed to act in a certain way, but deliberately refused to do so. We knew we were supposed to make our beds before going to school. We were supposed to clean and pick up, wash our face and hands, and brush our teeth before heading off to bed at night. No exceptions. If we deliberately talked back to either of our parents, it was "willful disobedience." We were expected to act with integrity and morality whether our folks were present or not. The same is true for believers and their relationship with the Lord. We are to live our faith! However, we can be just like Peter…
I. When we are disobedient! (Vv. 66-68)
1. Delayed obedience is disobedience! Disobedience can creep into our faith so easily, especially in our day and age where we are constantly bombarded by the world. Peter's actions were no exception. He knew ahead of time that he was going to be faced with the situation of denying his master. He had vehemently proclaimed that he could never do such a thing, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!” Yet, here we find Peter doing exactly what he said he would never do. “While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. ‘You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,’ she said. But he denied it. ‘I don't know or understand what you're talking about,’ he said, and went out into the entryway.” The world always looks “closely” at the actions of believers. Peter chose the easiest path. We should not be too hard on Peter, because he does what many of us do weekly on Monday following Sunday! Far too often we think we will not be held accountable for our actions. Jesus warned, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12:36 NIV) We should be brokenhearted over Peter’s continued denial. “When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, ‘This fellow is one of them.’” What does Peter do? Does he make a stand, does he boldly proclaim his faith in his friend, and does he demand to be held accountable for his witness? Nope. “Again he denied it!” Oh how sad to hear these words from Peter’s lips, and oh how sad to hear our lips make the same mewing sounds of denial through our constant insubordination! Are we like Peter? Yes, when we are disobedient!
EXAMPLE: Dave Branon of RBC Ministries related a story about "A young teen who was constantly getting into trouble always apologized when his parents confronted him. No matter how much he hurt his parents with his previous wrong-doing, he would soon turn around and do something else wrong—knowing he would be forgiven. Finally, his dad took him out to the garage for a talk. Dad picked up a hammer and pounded a nail into the garage wall. Then he gave his son the hammer and told him to pull out the nail. The boy shrugged, grabbed the hammer, and yanked out the nail. "That's like forgiveness, Son. When you do something wrong, it’s like pounding in a nail. Forgiveness is when you pull the nail out.' 'Okay, I get it,' said the boy. 'Now take the hammer and pull out the nail hole,' his dad replied. 'That’s impossible!' the boy said. 'I can’t pull it out.' That's exactly what happens when we knowingly disobey God. We know he will forgive us, but we immediately are disobedient again. Our disobedience leaves spiritual holes in our character until we deliberately decide to be brokenhearted over our sin and not do it again. Are we like Peter? Yes, when we are disobedient.
Getting caught in the act of doing something wrong can be embarrassing. I remember taking glass pop bottles from the back of a store and then cashing them in for money in the front! We soon got caught. What was worse is we had to confess our crime to our folks and repay what we took. I swore I would never ever take anything that did not belong to me ever again. And I have not. I remember my shame. You know, Christians can be just like Peter…
II. When we are ashamed! (Vv. 69-71)
1. Shame comes from being exposed for what we truly are! Here is a horrendous truth: Peter was not ashamed of his actions, he was ashamed of Jesus! Peter did not deny Jesus once, but he did it again, and then “After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean,” how does he respond? “He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you're talking about.’” Can you imagine being so ashamed of being connected with someone you actually call curses down on yourself? Wow! We allow our own embarrassment of Jesus and fear of what others might actually think when we allow our shame to dictate our actions! We do it when we have the God-given opportunity to share the transforming power of Christ to one in desperate need of a Savior and we look at our feet instead! Now we know that Peter faced imprisonment or death for his testimony of Christ, but we do not. When confronted three times about his friendship, Peter denies his friend. Why would we be so ashamed that we would deny our master so many times in our life? Do we forget so easily the words of Jesus when he warned, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”? (Mark 8:38 NIV) Now I know Jesus is specifically talking about the Jewish leadership and those listening to his words at that time. However, when we reject Jesus because of our shame and fear of the world’s contempt we do what Peter did. We are like Peter when we are ashamed of Jesus!
EXAMPLE: The Christian rock group called The Newsboys had a song titled "I'm Not Ashamed." It asked the believer, "What are we sneaking around for? Who are we trying to please? Shrugging off sin, apologizing like we're spreading some kind of disease. I'm saying, 'No way. No way.'" Yet many Christians do exactly what this song implicates. Recently the pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and heretic. He could not fathom why people got so upset with his unbiblical notion that no one goes to hell. Bell thinks that a belief in hell is "misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message." His universalism is an old false doctrine and ignores what Jesus said about the subject. Jesus taught, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell," meaning God himself! (Matthew 10:28 NIV) What a difference there is between the arrogance of some and the humility of Paul who wrote, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:20-21 NIV) We are like Peter when we are ashamed of Jesus!
What happens when we fail in our faith? Do we simply shrug it off and go on? If we do, we have not taken care of the root of the problem. Far too many Christians today think they are constantly covered by God's grace, even when they sin, and never have to worry about it. Yet we have learned that we will give an account for our ungodly actions. The wonderful truth is that we can escape the accountability of our sin if we are willing to do so! We do not have to be like Peter! Let's ask…
III. What can we do? (V. 72)
1. We need to act before the rooster crows! We find that for Peter, “Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.” Peter wept because he came to the realization of what he had just done to Jesus. What do we do when we realize we have behaved in the same way? Do we weep over our betrayal of Jesus? Are we brokenhearted over our sin? Paul reminds us, “If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:12-13 NIV) The key here is if we had rejected Jesus, if we had totally disassociated ourselves from faith in him, we would be lost, however, if we have believed but then falter, praise the Lord, he never disowns us! Peter had not yet placed his faith and trust in Jesus as his Savior and Lord, as he would later when he is confronted by Jesus (John 21:15-19). So, what can we do? 1) We can make sure we have confessed our faith in Christ: Paul related, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 NIV), 2) we can confess our failure and sin: John teaches us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV), and 3) we can remain in him: Jesus taught, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4 NIV) Just as Peter denies Jesus three times, he is later restored by Jesus three times and is commanded by Jesus to "Follow me!" (John 21:19) We can be restored as well! What can we do? We can turn to Jesus!
EXAMPLE: Philip Yancey writes that he "used to view the worship service in church as a time for entertainment." He writes that, "Speaking of folks like me, Sören Kierkegaard said that we tend to think of church as a kind of theater: We sit in the audience, attentively watching the actors onstage. If sufficiently entertained, we show our gratitude with applause. Church, though, should be the opposite of the theater. God is the audience for our worship. What matters most takes place within the hearts of the congregation—not onstage. We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not 'What did I get out of it?' but rather 'Was God pleased with what happened?'" I agree and disagree with Yancey. I agree we should always be concerned with what occurs during our worship, but I disagree in that I believe we should also ask, "What did I bring to worship?" Far to often we bring absolutely nothing to worship and expect God to "bless us real good." That is not what worship is about. Worship is all about God and not us! We can bring nothing to worship unless we have first placed our faith and trust in God's One and only Son Jesus. If we are unwilling to invest ourselves in what he did for us, dying on the cross, why should he be glad of our empty worship? What can we do? We can turn to Jesus!
Conclusion:
We are like Peter when we are disobedient, we are like Peter when we are embarrassed of Jesus, and yet God has provided for us! We can accept what Jesus has done for us, confess our sinful condition, and come to Jesus!
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2011 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
By Pastor Lee Hemen
March 27, 2011 AM
There is a certainty and assurance that true Christians know and reflect in their lives. Others have noted the peace that believers display no matter what occurs in life. During the cold war a KGB agent for the Soviet Union had nearly beaten to death a young Christian woman. He warned her to never be caught again. Her crime was having a Bible study in her home and owning a Bible. Later, she was again caught by the same KGB agent. In disbelief he could not shake the peace that he saw in her face even after she was finally murdered by his squad. It haunted him from that day on. Later, he gave his life to Christ and had to escape Russia himself. How could that lovely young woman continue in her faith even after she was severely beaten and then later die for her belief?
Faced with a similar situation we find Peter not only backtracking away from his friendship with Jesus, he flatly denies he ever knew him! . Are we like Peter? Sadly, far too many of us would have been like Peter and denounced Jesus and our faith. While we need to be careful in equating what Peter does in the courtyard with some of our own actions, his denials can help to encourage us to be the believers Christ desires. Let’s therefore ask and answer the question, “Are we like Peter?”
READ: Mark 14:66-72
My father called it "willful disobedience." He described it as when we knew we were supposed to act in a certain way, but deliberately refused to do so. We knew we were supposed to make our beds before going to school. We were supposed to clean and pick up, wash our face and hands, and brush our teeth before heading off to bed at night. No exceptions. If we deliberately talked back to either of our parents, it was "willful disobedience." We were expected to act with integrity and morality whether our folks were present or not. The same is true for believers and their relationship with the Lord. We are to live our faith! However, we can be just like Peter…
I. When we are disobedient! (Vv. 66-68)
1. Delayed obedience is disobedience! Disobedience can creep into our faith so easily, especially in our day and age where we are constantly bombarded by the world. Peter's actions were no exception. He knew ahead of time that he was going to be faced with the situation of denying his master. He had vehemently proclaimed that he could never do such a thing, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!” Yet, here we find Peter doing exactly what he said he would never do. “While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. ‘You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,’ she said. But he denied it. ‘I don't know or understand what you're talking about,’ he said, and went out into the entryway.” The world always looks “closely” at the actions of believers. Peter chose the easiest path. We should not be too hard on Peter, because he does what many of us do weekly on Monday following Sunday! Far too often we think we will not be held accountable for our actions. Jesus warned, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” (Matthew 12:36 NIV) We should be brokenhearted over Peter’s continued denial. “When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, ‘This fellow is one of them.’” What does Peter do? Does he make a stand, does he boldly proclaim his faith in his friend, and does he demand to be held accountable for his witness? Nope. “Again he denied it!” Oh how sad to hear these words from Peter’s lips, and oh how sad to hear our lips make the same mewing sounds of denial through our constant insubordination! Are we like Peter? Yes, when we are disobedient!
EXAMPLE: Dave Branon of RBC Ministries related a story about "A young teen who was constantly getting into trouble always apologized when his parents confronted him. No matter how much he hurt his parents with his previous wrong-doing, he would soon turn around and do something else wrong—knowing he would be forgiven. Finally, his dad took him out to the garage for a talk. Dad picked up a hammer and pounded a nail into the garage wall. Then he gave his son the hammer and told him to pull out the nail. The boy shrugged, grabbed the hammer, and yanked out the nail. "That's like forgiveness, Son. When you do something wrong, it’s like pounding in a nail. Forgiveness is when you pull the nail out.' 'Okay, I get it,' said the boy. 'Now take the hammer and pull out the nail hole,' his dad replied. 'That’s impossible!' the boy said. 'I can’t pull it out.' That's exactly what happens when we knowingly disobey God. We know he will forgive us, but we immediately are disobedient again. Our disobedience leaves spiritual holes in our character until we deliberately decide to be brokenhearted over our sin and not do it again. Are we like Peter? Yes, when we are disobedient.
Getting caught in the act of doing something wrong can be embarrassing. I remember taking glass pop bottles from the back of a store and then cashing them in for money in the front! We soon got caught. What was worse is we had to confess our crime to our folks and repay what we took. I swore I would never ever take anything that did not belong to me ever again. And I have not. I remember my shame. You know, Christians can be just like Peter…
II. When we are ashamed! (Vv. 69-71)
1. Shame comes from being exposed for what we truly are! Here is a horrendous truth: Peter was not ashamed of his actions, he was ashamed of Jesus! Peter did not deny Jesus once, but he did it again, and then “After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean,” how does he respond? “He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you're talking about.’” Can you imagine being so ashamed of being connected with someone you actually call curses down on yourself? Wow! We allow our own embarrassment of Jesus and fear of what others might actually think when we allow our shame to dictate our actions! We do it when we have the God-given opportunity to share the transforming power of Christ to one in desperate need of a Savior and we look at our feet instead! Now we know that Peter faced imprisonment or death for his testimony of Christ, but we do not. When confronted three times about his friendship, Peter denies his friend. Why would we be so ashamed that we would deny our master so many times in our life? Do we forget so easily the words of Jesus when he warned, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”? (Mark 8:38 NIV) Now I know Jesus is specifically talking about the Jewish leadership and those listening to his words at that time. However, when we reject Jesus because of our shame and fear of the world’s contempt we do what Peter did. We are like Peter when we are ashamed of Jesus!
EXAMPLE: The Christian rock group called The Newsboys had a song titled "I'm Not Ashamed." It asked the believer, "What are we sneaking around for? Who are we trying to please? Shrugging off sin, apologizing like we're spreading some kind of disease. I'm saying, 'No way. No way.'" Yet many Christians do exactly what this song implicates. Recently the pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and heretic. He could not fathom why people got so upset with his unbiblical notion that no one goes to hell. Bell thinks that a belief in hell is "misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message." His universalism is an old false doctrine and ignores what Jesus said about the subject. Jesus taught, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell," meaning God himself! (Matthew 10:28 NIV) What a difference there is between the arrogance of some and the humility of Paul who wrote, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:20-21 NIV) We are like Peter when we are ashamed of Jesus!
What happens when we fail in our faith? Do we simply shrug it off and go on? If we do, we have not taken care of the root of the problem. Far too many Christians today think they are constantly covered by God's grace, even when they sin, and never have to worry about it. Yet we have learned that we will give an account for our ungodly actions. The wonderful truth is that we can escape the accountability of our sin if we are willing to do so! We do not have to be like Peter! Let's ask…
III. What can we do? (V. 72)
1. We need to act before the rooster crows! We find that for Peter, “Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.” Peter wept because he came to the realization of what he had just done to Jesus. What do we do when we realize we have behaved in the same way? Do we weep over our betrayal of Jesus? Are we brokenhearted over our sin? Paul reminds us, “If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:12-13 NIV) The key here is if we had rejected Jesus, if we had totally disassociated ourselves from faith in him, we would be lost, however, if we have believed but then falter, praise the Lord, he never disowns us! Peter had not yet placed his faith and trust in Jesus as his Savior and Lord, as he would later when he is confronted by Jesus (John 21:15-19). So, what can we do? 1) We can make sure we have confessed our faith in Christ: Paul related, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9 NIV), 2) we can confess our failure and sin: John teaches us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV), and 3) we can remain in him: Jesus taught, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4 NIV) Just as Peter denies Jesus three times, he is later restored by Jesus three times and is commanded by Jesus to "Follow me!" (John 21:19) We can be restored as well! What can we do? We can turn to Jesus!
EXAMPLE: Philip Yancey writes that he "used to view the worship service in church as a time for entertainment." He writes that, "Speaking of folks like me, Sören Kierkegaard said that we tend to think of church as a kind of theater: We sit in the audience, attentively watching the actors onstage. If sufficiently entertained, we show our gratitude with applause. Church, though, should be the opposite of the theater. God is the audience for our worship. What matters most takes place within the hearts of the congregation—not onstage. We should leave a worship service asking ourselves not 'What did I get out of it?' but rather 'Was God pleased with what happened?'" I agree and disagree with Yancey. I agree we should always be concerned with what occurs during our worship, but I disagree in that I believe we should also ask, "What did I bring to worship?" Far to often we bring absolutely nothing to worship and expect God to "bless us real good." That is not what worship is about. Worship is all about God and not us! We can bring nothing to worship unless we have first placed our faith and trust in God's One and only Son Jesus. If we are unwilling to invest ourselves in what he did for us, dying on the cross, why should he be glad of our empty worship? What can we do? We can turn to Jesus!
Conclusion:
We are like Peter when we are disobedient, we are like Peter when we are embarrassed of Jesus, and yet God has provided for us! We can accept what Jesus has done for us, confess our sinful condition, and come to Jesus!
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2011 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
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