Mark - When Peter Disowned His Lord — J. Glyn Owen

Peter Is Identified as a Disciple in an Alien Atmosphere

Please be seated now will you kindly turn with me to the gospel recorded by st. Mark and to the passage that was read earlier in the service in chapter 14 particularly looking at verses 66 to 72. This is the passage that describes the disowning of his Lord by Simon Peter.

And it is doubtless a familiar passage to most of us. And for that reason alone we need special grace as we come to meditate upon it this morning inwardly then in our hearts. Let us be asking the Lord to direct the thrust of this toward each of our hearts and lives that we may know its application to ourselves as well as understand what it meant here to Simon Peter.

Now the whole passage here revolves around in the first place the identification of Simon as a disciple of Jesus Christ. You remember that by this time we have moved away from Gethsemane into the hall of the high priest and Simon Peter along with one other disciple have followed in the train of that group who arrested Jesus and took him there first of all to Annas then to Caiaphas.

Now as the night was cold and people were a little edgy it was necessary to have some way some means whereby they could be kept warm. And in the courtyard probably there was lit a fire a fire of charcoal.

And there in that setting Simon Peter was almost if not completely identified as a follower of Jesus identified in an alien atmosphere where he didn't want to be identified as such. And and the whole the whole record the whole passage revolves around this the identification of Simon as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Before we come to it may I ask you this very pertinent question. Have you ever been identified in an alien atmosphere as a follower of Jesus Christ. It's not a very comforting question. You have stood in alien settings too.

You have been in awkward places too. But has there been a strange man or woman that's come up to you and said ah you're a follower of Jesus Christ. With a little streak of cynicism Simon was identified three times over in measure at any rate.

Partly there was no real certainty about it but he was almost entirely almost completely identified as a disciple of Jesus. Now you see that this identification took place on three different levels. The first is very general mark verses 1466 and 67.

While Peter was below in the courtyard it seemed that the hall of the high priest was elevated a little perhaps at the end of the courtyard and Peter was down around this coal a fire this charcoal fire.

While Peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself that is saw him in the glow of the fire. She looked closely at him. You also were with a Nazarene Jesus she said.

Now you remember that when John who was the other disciple who went into the high priest's courtyard when John arrived he found that there was a young girl doing the work of a porter. John knew her. I don't ask us to explain why.

I don't think the scriptures tell us. But John knew this young girl and this young girl knew John and John slipped in quite happily. A few moments later John looked back and he saw his old mate Simon Peter still outside either refused entry or afraid to come in.

I can't tell you. John thinking of his mate immediately went to the young girl who was a portress and said. Let my chum come in and he passed in. Now if we are right in putting two and two together. Just a little time later that same girl seeing Simon's face in the glow of the fire and knowing that John was a disciple of Jesus turns to him and says.

Ah it's not only John but you too you too. Hey you're one of his phone. Now. She wasn't sure but she had a hunch and she expressed it. And it made Simon as we shall see in a moment most uncomfortable at that moment to be associated with a one who is being arraigned before the highest ecclesiastical court and whose life is in the balances.

Then the second point of the second way in which he was identified is brought out very clearly by John in chapter 18 and verse 26. Let me read one of the high priest's servants a relative of the man was your.

Peter had cut off challenged him. Didn't I see you with him in the olive grove. Now you see we're moving on a little bit. This is more definite. It had been a real exciting moment in the garden of Gethsemane when quick-tempered Simon got hold of his spear and you remember what happened.

A man lost his year. EAR. He lost his year not. The blessed Savior in a moment replaced it and healed the wound. This man who's now talking to Simon Peter was a relative of the man who lost his year and had it replaced.

And he looks at Peter again in the glow of the fire and he says. I assist and I seen you somewhere before. Weren't you in the garden with him. Now again you see he wasn't sure. And we can understand why he wasn't sure.

It was dark and in the shade of the groves. It was impossible to see distinctly. And in any case his eyes would not have been on Simon Peter so much as on the one who healed what had happened in the twinkling of an eye.

Peter took little time to get rid of the year. The time was taken if anywhere in replacing that year so that this man's this man's eyes would have been concentrated more upon the Lord Jesus act of healing than upon Simon's quick action of dismembering his kinsman's year.

So you see he's not sure either but but he's almost he should. Haven't I seen your face somewhere before. Weren't you in the garden with him. The Paschal moon was blazing. It was a blazing in full force and so it was possible to see.

But there were shadows. And he wasn't sure. Then we come to the next. Luke gives us the best picture of that. I believe Luke 22 and verse 59. About an hour later Luke is very accurate with timing. About an hour later another asserted certainly this fellow was with him for he is a Galilean.

This identification of Peter as a follower of Jesus was made on the basis of their common Galilean accent. See there was such a difference between the accent of the Galileans in the north and the Judeans in the south.

The other day I was shaking hands with folk leaving from the morning service here and I was greeted with a lovely Highland Scots Highland accent and it sounded so beautiful. Two or three behind. I'm sure the good man who shook my hand hadn't long been out of East London and he was almost a pure cockney.

They made such a contrast. I'm not telling you which was the best of course. But they made such a contrast. And they all live in the little few islands over there comprising the United Kingdom. I'm not saying that the contrast was quite as great in this.

In this situation it wasn't. That's exaggerated but it was definite. It was certain. It was clear. And if you lived in the country you'd have recognized it anywhere. Your speech betrays you says one of the other Gospels.

Of course you've been living in Galilee and you speak the same accent as Jesus and therefore there aren't many of you around here just now they linked him. The identification of Simon as a follower. Now it all begins there and you notice you notice.

It isn't foolproof it isn't conclusive. So really had Simon been composed and had his wits about him. There really was no need for him to have got all this excited because the case is not clear yet. But you see Simon was agitated for many many reasons.

Peter's Privilege and the Gravity of Betrayal

We can't go into them all this morning. And so we come to look at what I'm going to speak of next as the reaction of a traitor. Now I take no pleasure in saying that. I want to assure you of that and I don't think any of us should take any pleasure in speaking of one of the greatest if not the greatest of the twelve was a traitor.

A traitor is one who betrays his trust. And the fact of the matter is this minimize it if you like you can't ultimately get away from the fact that Simon Peter here betrayed the trust placed in him by our Lord Jesus Christ.

And the immensity of that betrayal is brought out by a number of issues. First of all it is brought out on account of the privileged position which Simon had enjoyed in the company of Jesus. Simon was not an ordinary distant disciple.

In the first place Simon had been called to be one of the twelve. We may miss the privilege of that may the Lord enable us to recapture a sense of the glory of it to have been one of the twelve apostles who accompanied our Lord for three to three and a half years watched him saw him at close quarters heard him pray sat at his feet saw him die and rise again from the dead and were commissioned by him to be the heralds of his gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.

I say to you this is privilege indeed. Simon was one of the twelve and there were only twelve more than that. Simon was one of the three from among the twelve who on a few precious a few special occasions sacred occasions Jesus chose to go away and apart with him for something that was unusual.

You remember for example on the Mount of Transfiguration. I don't need to go into the details but he chose three Peter James and John to go with him to that place and to see for themselves something of the glory that had always been resident in his soul now irradiated through his physical body.

Simon saw that Simon was one of the three. But just recently Simon along with the same two James and John had been with Jesus in Gethsemane. All the others were there but the others were somewhere near the entrance to the grove.

Jesus told them to stay there. Judas apart. He's already gone. And Jesus took the three with him further on into the garden and bad them watch with no while and they apparently were within the range of his voice and they could see what was happening.

He went still a little further ahead but they were there they were closer to him. Peter had been identified as a foundation the foundation member of the Christian Church in the sense in which no one else can be thus identified.

Jesus said to him in Caesarea Philippi following his the epical confession of faith. Jesus said blessed are you Simon son of Jonah. For this is not. This was not revealed to you by man but by my father in heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it or prevail against it. Simon Peter was the foundation member. Jesus said to him it's upon a faith like yours that I'm going to build the whole of my church and that church will be such a mighty militant power in the world at the very gates of Hades shall not withstand it moreover and I have no time to dwell with with with these.

But I must add this the same Simon was the first to be given what we normally refer to as the power of the keys. That power was given to the whole twelve a little later on in chapter 18. But in this same chapter 16 Simon was told I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And Simon used the power of the keys to introduce men into the kingdom of God. Now you add these up and you come to some amazing conclusion concerning the high privileges of this man.

We're not talking about a young stripling that has only made a profession of faith yesterday and is just one of the multitude. Here is Simon Peter. Here is the highly privileged Simon. I have heard people comparing Peter with Judas asking which is the most tragic.

And you know some things perhaps we shouldn't try we shouldn't attempt to study or explain. I don't know that we can. We ought to do what some people are trying to do in in this context. But let me say one thing.

Judas's fall took him deeper into the abysmal depths of outer darkness than Peter fell. But Peter's fall was from a higher elevation altogether. Peter fell from a place of prominence and pre-eminence.

Among the twelve he was. He was one of the three if not the leader of the three as well as of the twelve the privileged position Peter occupied. But now that brings us right into the right into the teeth of the main thrust of this passage the persistence and the vehemence with which Peter denied his law.

The Persistence and Vehemence of Peter's Denial

Take the accumulated testimony of the four Gospels. And you have a graphic portrayal of what took place. And we need them by the way to supplement each other. Will you look at the first challenge that came to Peter and how he met it.

The first challenge which we've already referred to concerning his relation to Jesus Peter rebutted with the assertion that it made no rational sense. Mark 14 verses 66 to 68. While Peter was below in the courtyard one of the servant girls of the high priest came by and she saw Peter warming himself and 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. Now there you have a man who is taken suddenly unawares. He wasn't expecting this.

Suddenly this girl comes upon him and she just throws out the question. Were you. Surely you were. And yet there's no certainty about it. But Peter is evidently taken aback but he's set on his course.

And this is the point I want you to notice. It is inexplicable but it is as tragic as it is inexplicable. Peter seemed already all set on the downhill course toward outright denial. Even at that point he was clearly unnerved even though by nature he was not a coward.

I think it is necessary for us to see that and to remember that Peter was not a coward. You can call him anything but you can't call Peter a coward on the night. For example when Jesus saw the disciples in a storm caught in a storm and they were about to lose all hope of ever getting to land again.

You remember Jesus walked on the waves to come to them. It was dark and they didn't quite recognize him. You remember Simon Peter blurting out. It's only a man with courage would do this Lord he says.

If it really is you bid me come to you on the water. And when Jesus said come Peter was out of the boat like a shark and he was walking towards his Lord. Now he's only a man of courage would do that but not to go after other illustrations take this most recent in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We're not justifying Peters action but let it be noted that he was the only one among the whole group who was prepared to put up a battle for his Lord's life. And he was foolish enough to put his hand to his spear and to start a fight though he was single-handed.

But the point is you see he didn't lack courage. That's what I'm getting at not justifying him. But he didn't lack courage. He was willing to do anything at that point. And then I noticed this too and it's staggering.

I can't explain it. Having got into the courtyard and this young girl having come on to him and said weren't you one of his one of his followers. Peter didn't make for the door. Peter didn't go backwards.

Peter didn't strike retreat and run away. Couldn't. He was the gate locked. I don't know but it's very significant. It seems to me that Peter didn't run away at that point. And yet you see this is the problem.

He was determined from the word go to say that he did not know what the girl was talking about. In other words he says it just doesn't make sense. It's so new to me. It's so out of this world that you associate me with him.

There's no there's no sense to it. A second time he was challenged about his association with Jesus. He was equally adamant in his denial. This time perhaps he didn't use as many words. It was a case of overkill from the first with the first in relation to the first charge.

But he added something very significantly the second time it sounds like a case of sheer determination to let these people know as he would say that he does not belong to Jesus. Matthew puts it very very strikingly in chapter 26 and verse 72.

He denied it again says Matthew with an oath with notes. I don't know the man Jesus. He doesn't know Jesus. Peter says he doesn't know Jesus. One of the three that was with him on the mount. One of the three that was with him in the garden.

Peter to whom Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church. I don't know him says Peter with an oath. Now there is cunning here and I am only bringing it out because my friends I am quite sure of this that if you and I examine our own hearts we find that there is cunning very often employed cunning.

Cunning to get away from our Christian responsibility. Cunning in order to avoid the challenge of the cross and of the Christ. It is here in Peter. You notice what he does. He doesn't simply repeat I don't know the man but but he uses an oath.

He thus attempts to put folk off the scent of truth by a mode of speech that was recognizably unlike that of Jesus and his following and thereby to show that there was no moral affinity whatsoever between him and Jesus.

He's a man who can strike an oath. He's a man who can swear. Now this speaks voluminously of course by the way incidentally this speaks voluminously of the quality of life among the disciples of Jesus.

That's the whole thrust of this. That's the whole. That's the whole raison d 'etre. You see Peter. Peter knew Jesus and his disciples don't swear. There's no oath-taking here. Their yea is yea their nay is nay.

Their word is their bond. And the people knew that. Otherwise there would be no reason in Peter doing what he did. And so he struck an oath in order you see for the people to say oh well he we can't associate him with Jesus.

Because Jesus wouldn't do things like that. He wouldn't talk like that. He doesn't use that kind of language on being challenged. The third time an hour later according to Luke 22 59 Simon now behaves like a thoroughly frightened and unnerved person.

It's like a man caged demented. We read in Matthew 26 73 and 74. After a little while those standing there went up to Peter and said surely you are one of them. For your accent gives you away. Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them.

I don't know the man. Now you see the climax. You see the gravity. You see the persistence. Three times over he says I don't know the man. And he adds something each time. Once just a swear word or an oath.

But now cursing and swearing. A kind of persistent swearing and cursing. I'm sure it must have sounded so odd on Simon's years because he's been away from that kind of thing for a long time. Now now why is it.

What is it that brings this climax. Brings Peter to this climax in his determination to disavow any association with Jesus. What's really frightened him. What's shaken the bottom out of his life. What is it now.

Peter's Fear, Shame, and the Rooster's Warning

I have a suggestion to make. I may be wrong. I may be right. I give it to you just before the second denial it just immediately before it immediately before he was challenged and had to reply. This is what we read according to John.

Meanwhile the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. I have spoken openly to the world Jesus replied. I have always taught in synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews come together.

I said nothing in secret. Why question me. Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I say what I said. Now have you got the point. Somewhere at the end of the courtyard there somewhere is the room where Jesus is being arraigned and being questioned.

Now the big question as far as interpretation is concerned did Peter overhear what was going on. Was he near enough to overhear some of the questions that were being asked his Lord. And I suggest to you that probably he was.

If he was then he overheard the high priest asking Jesus tell us something about your disciples and tell us something about your teaching. And Jesus said no. No he said I've been teaching all out in the open.

I've said nothing in secret. And it is your part it is your responsibility. It's part of the proceedings of legal of Jewish the Jewish legal code. You must provide the witnesses. And there are plenty of witnesses of what I've said and what I've done right in the open.

And there was one witness warming himself by the fireside right down there in the courtyard. He knew what Jesus had taught. He knew that he could disprove the charges brought against him. He knew the evidence which proved him to be the Son of God.

He had seen him in his glory. He had heard him with his authority. He knew that he was the Savior of the Messiah according to the scriptures. He had all the answers when faced with this third query. Then as to his relation to Jesus he was the more firmly set and determined as to his tactics he would in principle do exactly what he did the second time.

But he would go further. He would so curse and swear that the people listening would say no. No he can't be related to the Lord Jesus. What a victory. What a price for release from death and danger. But his blasphemy got him free.

And yet the moment of freedom was scarcely scarcely. 60 seconds. I'll tell you why. Because immediately after it seemed that he had freed himself and people were no longer associating him with Jesus. The cock crowed the second time and he remembered the words of Jesus which said before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.

And inwardly there erupts in the soul of this big man the awareness of his guilt and of his shame and of his misery. And he literally wept and went on weeping. The identification of a disciple the reaction of a traitor aggravated by his privileged position and his persistent denial.

Jesus' Wisdom and Grace in Peter's Failure

There is one thing else here I want to leave with. You would be wrong of us this morning if we had just looked at Simon Peter in his folly even though we have reminded ourselves that there is a great side to the character of Simon Peter and that he will yet be the leader of the church in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

There is one other thing that I want to leave with you because it is right here and we need to see it. I need to see it for my own soul's sake and I believe likewise you need to see it. And that is the vindication of the Savior.

The episode before us brings out the hidden depths of sin and weakness and failure in the disciples. But it brings out the greatness and the grace and the glory of the Savior. Just take a brief look at it.

First of all this episode vindicates the wisdom of Jesus in the commands he gave to his disciples and in the prohibitions he uttered particularly to Peter. If you go back to John chapter 13 passage beginning with verse 31 you will remember that right at that point this conversation went on.

Jesus said my children I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and just as I told you just as I told the Jews so I tell you now where I am going. You cannot come. And that's as clear as clear can be.

You cannot come. Then he goes on to speak of the new commandment and Peter is ready. Simon Peter asked him Lord where are you going. Jesus replied where I'm going. You cannot follow now. But you will follow me afterwards or later.

Peter he says don't don't ask questions about this because it doesn't belong to you. You can't follow me now. I'm not expecting you to. I don't want you to. I'm telling you it isn't safe for you to follow me now.

Take me at my word says Peter not in your life. Why can't I follow you now. I will lay down my life for you. The others may not but I will. And I'm prepared to die. I'm quite sure he meant every word of it you see.

But our Lord knew what was ahead when Peter did not. And what I want you to see is this that our Lord's wisdom and our Lord's prohibitions were vindicated by the things that happened to Peter here in the courtyard of the high priest.

And I stress this for this solitary reason. You see you and I so often quarrel with the prohibitions of our Lord. You and I so often quarrel with some of the commands of Scripture. And we say all this is out of date.

This doesn't apply to me. Jesus was living 2 ,000 years ago. Well he may have been the Son of God. But but but but but does this apply to me today. And not until we get into the into into the very abysmal depths of having disgraced ourselves and disgraced our Lord.

Do we realize that he's wiser than we are. He knows what's ahead of you. He knows what's around the corner. He knows that Satan is abroad and mark you. Just as Jesus told Simon Simon Simon Satan has desire to have you that he may sift you as wheat just as Jesus told Simon that I want you to notice that Simon in his first epistle in chapter 5 preaches the same message to his fellow Christians.

Satan is roaming around the place he says seeking whom he may devour. Watch out for him. Be very careful. He says he's still around and he may want to get hold of you and maul you as he mauled me. So be careful.

What I want you to notice is our Lord's wisdom was his prohibitions were vindicated and so was his grace and power. Now listen. Would you permit a thing like this to happen to the one whom you have appointed to be the leader of the church.

Here is our Lord Jesus Christ and he's called Simon Peter and he's given him the power of the keys. And humanly speaking is going to depend upon this group of men with Peter at the helm. And he himself is going back to be with the father and he's allowing this to happen.

What a dangerous thing. Now I don't know what you make of that word dangerous. But God acts dangerously sometimes. And he let Simon Peter go. He's warned him and he's told him not to. But when Peter is adamant and Peter willfully goes where he was told not to go Jesus lets him go and lets him sin.

Oh my friend. But don't miss this. Jesus is able to make use of the very sin and of the very denial of Simon Peter to teach him a lesson without which he could not be the leader he is in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

Learning Human Weakness Before Pentecostal Power

You say what is that lesson. Well there are many aspects to it. I just simply want to mention this. Up until this point Peter is full of arrogance self-sufficiency and pride. He's a man who's wiser than his Lord he was at the beginning he tried to dissuade his Lord from going to the cross.

He's wiser than his Lord. At this point he thinks he can go where his Lord has told him he can't. Are you like that he said. There was one lesson that Simon Peter had to learn before the Spirit of God could come to his life in fullness.

And that was this that however strong he was or he thought he was physically or intellectually or in any other way he must recognize his own weakness. And he must see it. And if he can only learn his own weakness by falling into such a miserable condition as this then he must be allowed to go his way.

But Jesus in infinite grace and compassion takes hold of the very sin of Peter to teach him the lesson that without his grace and contrary to his word he's playing with fire. And had Peter not learned that lesson I want to tell you that he could not have been a candidate for Pentecost.

No man no woman will be filled with a power of the Spirit of God save in the imagination until he or she knows that he or she cannot do the work of God in the power of the flesh. And whilst you think you're strong enough without the Holy One resting in power within you and controlling you I tell you you'll know nothing about the might and the fullness of the Pentecostal effusion.

The man who thinks he can carry on in the power of his own flesh is a man whom the Lord will let go to reap his own harvest. And finally we see here the vindication of our Lord's own example as to how to face trial and face death.

Christ's Prayerful Courage in the Face of Trial

It's such a contrast that between Jesus and the disciple isn't it here is the blessed Savior standing alone princely lordly sovereignly wisely in control of himself and of his words it seems that he is under arrest.

Don't you believe it. Physically he may have allowed that to happen but but but he's as free as the bird. He's in total control of circumstances and of everything. And he's not. He's not bullied against his will.

He is willing what is happening and he's in control. But poor old Peter he's like a cork in the ocean. He's being kicked about by everybody's little whispers about himself. And he's worried and he doesn't know where he is.

He's less than a man not simply less than a disciple. Or to be. Where did our Lord get that courage and that wisdom and that poise from. I tell you he always had it because he always communed with his father.

And he allowed nothing to break that. And when he saw the cross imminent he arranged a vigil in the garden of Gethsemane to pray. And the Jesus who prayed and there were great drops of blood that marked the ground where he prayed in Gethsemane.

The Jesus who prayed in Gethsemane was able to stand in the courtyard. And the Simon who slept in Gethsemane slid in the courtyard. He who sleeps when he ought to be praying will slide when he ought to be standing still true our Lord's method is vindicated.

How did he gain such a marvelous victory as a man in the flesh. Well in this way he was wholly in tune with his father and he went on to finish the work the father gave him to do in fellowship with independence upon and to the glory of the one true God the father himself.

Repentance, Restoration, and the Savior's Faithfulness

Maybe that some of us here this morning have got many wounds but we've walked Simon's way. I want you to look as you leave at Simon's Savior to a very sinful of his servant vindicates his wisdom and the principles that he proclaims and would have you and me practice.

And he is able to come down to the very depths of his disciples shame. And in due course we shall read that Simon has got his wounds healed and is renewed and is again about his master's business. But that may mean repentance and that may mean the heartbreak of turning away and acknowledging things that are wrong.

Oh my friends we are living in a blaspheming world. Are you a blasphemer. Come to the feet of the Christ who is faithful to serve to the uttermost. Those who come to God by him take his word as final and don't argue with him and walk in his way and you'll be saved many unnecessary miseries.

But what is more. You will be appraised to him and to his glory. Let us pray our Heavenly Father. We acknowledge this morning that in one sense we have been sitting in judgment upon this your great servant Peter forgive us if there has been any wrong spirit in our doing so because our denials have far outnumbered Peters when we have not been in such dangerous situations as he but simply concerned for our own comforts.

And we have acted arrogantly and persistently and you know the consequences in our lives. God of all grace draw near to us to each one of us speak to us by name and enable us if we have walked this way enable us we pray to come to the risen crucified Lord and find pardon in his wounds.

Afresh this morning lead us on our way then lead us on our way enabling us to be faithful where we have been faithless and obedient where we have disobeyed. We ask it in our master's worthy name. Amen.